Taken to the back of the training rooms, which were usually abandoned on Saturday morning, Pidge sat us down to talk.

"Okay." she clears her throat. "Before we begin, you both must promise to never speak about this to anyone. Especially any of the teachers who work at Garrison." she met our gaze, eyes serious and vowed to steal our very souls should we reveal this secret.

Hunk and I share a look, then nod. "We promise."

She slowly pulls out a few pictures. Holding out one, I realize it is Matt. "Matt," I say.

"My brother," she confirms. "He graduated Garrison and is now helping them work on their latest shuttles to head out into space. He loves his work, and has excelled in all his classes." the heavy atmosphere seems to lighten as Pidge talks about her brother. She smiles, proudly telling us the many accomplishments and skills her brother possessed, "Engineering, coding algorithms, work in advanced technology, hacking- he practically a communication specialist and is even helping the Garrison with their communication network."

"Whoa." Hunk blinks a few times. "Sounds like an impressive guy."

"He is!"

"Then why keep everyone in the dark about knowing he is your brother?" I ask, puzzled.

Pidge's smile falls, "Well... " she sighs, "Lately, all of that seems to have changed. Matt used to love the Garrison and always told me how much he loved working here. Lately, though, something wasn't right. The problem is, I don't know exactly what."

"Still not following," I admit.

"All I know is that Matt has been involved in a top-secret project lately. He isn't allowed to tell me anything, but he seemed nervous about it. At first, he just seemed apprehensive about it and said he wanted to quit his job and move back into the things he likes. He was requested personally for the job by Commander Iverson."

"Commander Iverson?" Hunk gasps, "It has to be a big deal if he requested Matt."

"My thoughts exactly. I was positive Matt was going to quit the job with how much he seemed to dislike it. However, one day, he completely stopped talking about it, but is still doing the job."

"Which means…?" I trail off.

"I think my brother intended to quit, but they convinced him not to." she narrowed her eyes, "I think they forced him not to.

"You think they are blackmailing your brother or something?" Hunk looked pale.

Pidge nodded solemnly, "I have no full proof, but there is no other explanation. When Matt decides something, he sticks with it till the end. He's afraid of something and is too scared to bring it up to us. He even did everything he could to try and convince me not to go to Garrison."

"Why was that weird?" I tilt my head.

"Because all he ever talked about was Garrison and how I should go there, and then just flipped a complete 180 saying I shouldn't."

"So then… you came to Garrison anyway under a fake name?" I wondered.

"Fake everything, basically. I wanted to make sure Iverson had no idea I was Matt's sister. I changed my name, forged a fake birth certificate, high school degree- everything."

"Hold old are you then?" Hunk murmured.

Pidge pushed up their glasses, "15," they smirk.

"I knew you looked too young to be 18!" I jab a finger at her,

Her smirk widens before she continues, "I planned to quietly gather some evidence on my brother without letting him know I was here. If he figured it out, he would send me home, and my family will never figure out what is wrong. I know Iverson is up to something. I can- I can feel it in my gut,"

I shake my head, trying to wrap my brain around it, "Geez… Have you figured anything out yet?"

"Not much. It's been hard to get information without letting them know I'm here. I've been following Matt around, but I've only confirmed something is wrong. He avoids his friends so they don't realize anything is wrong, but it's only a matter of time before they figure it out too."

"Is that what this is about?" The room froze. None of us had said that. I could feel the hair stand straight on the back of my neck.

Someone else was in the room!

My heart leaped into my throat when a voice spoke from a shadowy corner.

I held my breath in fear, a chill running up my spine as we turned to confront the person eavesdropping. Thinking it was perhaps a teacher, or even Iverson himself, I felt relieved to recognize a very familiar looking mullet.

"Keith?" I gasp at him. He folds his arms, stepping into the light. "You creeper." I scold him, feeling like laughing, "What are you doing standing in a dark corner like that?"

"I walked in a few minutes ago," he shrugs, "You guys just aren't very observant."

"Oh." Hunk paled.

"What are you doing here?" Pidge gasped at him, eyes darting left and right nervously, ready to bolt.

"I always come here to train on Saturday morning."

I curse my memory, knowing this was a fact but just spacing it at the moment. "Keith you- please, you can't tell anyone."

He folds his arm, sweat from his work out still kissing his skin. I watch a droplet of it slide down his neck to pool around his collarbone- yup, I'm off track. Is he talking right now?

"You know how I am with secrets, Lance," he smirks, and my face feels too hot to be normal.

"What does that mean?" Hunk asked, confused.

"Nothing," he says innocently. "Listen, I wouldn't gain anything from spilling your secret to the world."

"You won't tell anyone?" Pidge frowned suspiciously.

"No," he shakes his head, "In fact, I'm going to join you,"

"What?" we gawk at him.

"You say Iverson had some secret agenda and is blackmailing people? That is a conspiracy theory at its best," his eyes sparkle, "I'm in."

"My god," I pinch the bridge of my nose, wondering why I expected any different.

"Plus," we glance at him, "Matt Holt is my brother's best friend. I've known Matt for a while myself, and he is a good guy. If something is messing with him, I want to know about it."

"You don't have to do this, Keith," I tell him.

"I want to. Plus, I'm bored. Which I wouldn't be if a certain someone would be cooperative during my sèances."

I groan, "For the last time, Keith. I am not helping you summon ghosts and demons into our room!"

He snorts and looks away like I was some party pooper. "Whatever. Here, follow me. I'll show you what I know."

Glancing at each other, skeptical, we follow Keith all the way back to our dorm. Opening the door, he pulled out a folder from under his bed. There were many folders under there; each labeled with something different. No doubt each a conspiracy of some sort.

"This is the dirt I've gathered on Iverson so far." Keith lays it out on the table for us to look at.

Impressed by the amount of information I say, "You work fast."

Keith smirks a little as if pleased by the praise. "I do what I can."

"Which is an unreal and almost creepy amount." Pidge lifts up a few papers to look them over. "You gathered all of this in just one day?"

He shakes his head, "No, I've been strategically gathering that for months now when the opportunities arrive."

We stare at him, blinking. I decide to step forward and ask, saving Pidge and Hunk from doing it themselves, "You know what I'm going to ask." I sigh, placing my hands on my hips. He nods.

"I would prefer you ask it anyway."

I purse my lips, tilting my head back before asking the question we were all thinking, "Why do you have this?"

"Iverson is a man of power and people who have power hold secrets," he says with a small flip of his hair.

"So without even knowing what those secrets might be, or even confirming that he had any, you began to stalk him," I conclude.

"Yes." he motions to the stack, "And as we can all see, I have now just confirmed he has a secret, so my time was not wasted."

"Once out of every other time, it was not wasted, congratulations." I shake my head at him.

"I'm not complaining." Pidge sat down to go through the pile more thoroughly. "This information will help me out a lot."

"Even if we got this, what exactly is the plan here? How are we gonna prove Iverson is blackmailing your brother? Are you sure it is even him that is doing it?" Hunk spoke up, nervous

"I'm positive it is him. He coordinates all projects in the Garrison. As for how we do it, we gotta learn my brother's and Iverson's schedules first. Perhaps if we could figure out what my brother is even working on it could help us figure out what Iverson is using to blackmail him."

"Does Shiro know?" I turn to Keith.

He shakes his head, "From what Shiro has told me he's been in the dark about what Matt's been up to for months. They meet up, but Matt doesn't talk about work anymore."

"Not even with Shiro…" Pidge shakes her head. "That definitely proves something is up. Not enough, of course, to go to someone about it, but enough for us to figure it out."

"So we're tailing Matt?" I conclude.

"Not all of us." Pidge shakes her head. "We need to plan this out. If Matt finds out what we're doing, it's all over."

Taking a deep breath, I think this through. I was getting into a dangerous kind of situation here. Stalking two higher ups in the Garrison and trying to uncover top-secret intel… I could get expelled for all of that.

But Pidge was my friend; I couldn't just abandon her.

"Okay." I sigh, "I think we can all agree we're on board for this, but we gotta be super careful."

Pidge nods, motioning for us to sit down so we could figure this out.

And that is how I got caught up in some weird investigation with a 15-year-old, my good friend Hunk, and Keith the conspiracy theorist.

For the next week we would break into teams in a sort of divide and conquer kind of strategy. We would switch objectives during each of our free time, either to follow Iverson or Matt, gathering whatever information we could throughout Garrison

Keith and I were partners in this. Keith was the popular one, and I was that chatterbox, as Pidge placed it.

People would be open to talking with Keith, but since he was socially constipated, I was in charge of gathering the info. I tried to convince Pidge to chance up the teams, saying that Keith and me never really got along.

She wouldn't hear it.

"Lance, you get along with Keith way better than Hunk and I do. I'm surprised you are even complaining. This just gives you the chance to hang out with him more."

She was correct about that, but I would prefer to try and hand out with Keith in a typical setting. Not in some quiet investigation where Keith would take things too far. Which I knew he would because he was Keith.

A silver lining, I got to hang out with him.

Which was also a problem all in itself.

To say everyone stared would be an understatement. One stroll around Garrison together and suddenly I was the talk of the school.

Who was I? How did I know Keith? Were we friends? Were we something else…?
I could hear girls gossiping about their theories on what we were together. Half of them seemed to assume I was just some side fling for Keith to keep himself busy.

Kind of a low blow, but it was better to just ignore those kind of people.

"Got word from Pidge that Matt has his schedule set for the week. She'll send it over in a second." Keith announced, handing me a binder.

"What's this?" I ask, opening it.

"A full documented plan to take down Iverson."

I eye the 30-page binder, color coordinated and alphabetical, "When did you make this?"

"I stayed up last night to complete it."

I skim over it. "Keith, this sounds more like a "take out the guy for good" plan then a simple discover what he is up to kind of thing."

"I don't like people messing with my friends." Keith said simply.

Oh, so Matt was considered a friend in Keith's eyes. That was nice to know.

"Okay, so you figure out where Matt will be tomorrow?" I ask. When I turn to Keith, he flashes a light in my eyes. I blink rapidly at the sudden attack on my poor irises. "What the-"

"Pupils seem to react normally to light," Keith mumbled, jotting something down.

I groaned at him, "Seriously? You are still on this?" Once again I was forced to be part of Keith's strange experiments. It felt like a sense of my own blackmail considering I couldn't exactly say no to him without the fear of him telling someone about me. I mean, I want to hope Keith wouldn't be that kind of guy- but there was no way I could take that chance.

"My investigation can't end until I figure out what you are Lance. Or at least something close to it. Obviously, you are some new type of species to human, but I can't exactly give that species a name until I know everything they can do."

I rub my eyes, ignoring the little jab I felt at the reminder that I am in fact not human, "What does that mean? You want to name me…?"

"Shouldn't the person who discovers a new species get to name it?"

I lower my hands, "Keith, you weren't the one to discover me. If anyone should get to decide the name, it should be my parents." I felt annoyed at this conversation. Just like I did with every other discussion I had with Keith about what I was. It wasn't like it was with my family. With them, it was playful teases and pokes, nothing to upset me because they knew how much it hurt to think about this…

Keith didn't seem to get that. His actions weren't intentionally mean, but his thoughts on me weren't exactly warm either. I was just like any other animal for him to look at. If I was in a more bitter mood, I might just snap at him for continuing this. However, I wanted to focus on Pidge's brother.

"If you think so." he rolls his eyes and grabs his bag. "Okay, let's go."

We passed by Shiro a few times, and Keith often had to cancel previous plans with the older student to follow up on a lead with Matt. I think that Keith wanted to trust Shiro with this information, but he had insisted that he knew Shiro too well.

He would take it straight to Iverson if he learned about this and confront him.

"You never just confront the villain, Lance," Keith tells me, having watched hours of Criminal minds, NSIC, and a large assortment of detective and lawyer shows. "You have to gather evidence to prove what you say is true, or else they can just walk away and destroy that evidence later."

"But didn't you say Matt was his best friend? Wouldn't he want to know?"

"He is but…" Keith shrugs, "Shiro kind of gets blindsided when things that involve Matt?"

"What do you mean?"

Keith stops, glances around, and leans a little closer. Like an elementary student about to be told a little secret, I eagerly lean in, "Let's just say, those two have always been a little closer than just friends."

I blink once, twice, then gasp, covering my mouth at such amazingly juicy information, "No."

"Yes." he nods.

"Are you serious?"

"Completely." he rolls his eyes like the thought of relationships was some joke to him. "Shiro's a love-stricken fool over him."

"I had no idea." I feel myself smiling. Now that I knew, I couldn't stop thinking about it. The strong and well built Shiro with a small and nerdy Matt… It was cute! "Aww."

"No, not "Aww'." Keith mimics me, shaking his head. "They are so lovey-dovey it's sickening. They dance around each other and flirt with no consideration to who is around them. I can't hang out with them anymore without being some third wheel."

"Oh come on, you can't mean that." I chuckle, "Aren't you happy for Shiro?"

He looks away, "Of course I am. And I want him to be with Matt. I just-" there is hesitation in his eyes, something I don't often see from him. "I just don't want him getting hurt when it turns sour. I don't want either of them getting hurt..."

"You make it sound like it's inevitable." I stare at him, following him down the hall.

With a cold look, he stops, "Because it is. Romantic relationships only lead to heartache, Lance. It would probably be best for you to remember that."

Caught off guard, I stand alone in the hall, watching Keith walk ahead of me. Remembering we had something to do I stumble after him, his words heavy on my mind. What did he even mean by that?

I didn't have much time to think about it before we found our target.

Following Matt into town, having never felt more like a stalker in my life, we tailed him for a good hour before he stopped in a little cafe. Through this hour, I was squished on the back of Keith's bike, my arms awkwardly wrapped around his waist.

His warm, strong back.

Yeah, it was a pretty awesome hour.

I felt sad when the ride was put to an end so we could follow Matt into the cafe.

Shuffling in, sitting a few seats away from him but still within earshot, we pressed the menus to our faces, waiting to see who he was here to meet up with.

When the door opened a little while later, we hear Matt call out, "Hey!" and he waves.

"Who is it?"

"It's Shiro," I inform Keith. He tenses, sinking a little deeper into his seat.

He whispers, "What day is it again?"

"Wednesday?"

Keith curses himself, "They always meet up on Wednesday."

"But Pidge says Matt doesn't hang out with Shiro that much anymore," I say

"I know," Keith mumbles, "Shiro's been worried about Matt for a while because he's been missing their meetup times. He says Matt's been acting strange but insists it's just because he's been taking longer shifts."

"At least they can meet up today for their date." I smile over Keith's shoulder, admiring the two. Matt, who had been gloomy moments before lit up when Shiro came into sight.

Color returned to his cheeks, almost flaming when Shiro pushed in his chair for him. It was super cute

"I wouldn't call it a date to them." Keith snorts

"Huh?"

"They are more than friends, but they aren't exactly dating. Yet." he shrugs, "They are both super awkward about it, and neither of them has confessed yet."

That sounded like a crime, "But it is so obvious."

Keith nods, "Welcome to my world."

"So they aren't together…" I trail off.

"Yes. They dance around each other and avoid it because they don't want to ruin their friendship." he keeps his eyes on the menu. "They should just get it over with."

I'm puzzled, "So you want them to get together because it is obvious, but you also don't want them to get together because you think they'll get hurt?"

Keith's hand twitches and he meets my gaze, eyes narrowed. "It's complicated."

I snort, "Apparently."

"You don't get it, okay?" Anger touched his voice, "Maybe in your world everyone gets a happy ever after, but that isn't how it goes for most people."

I frown, "I didn't say it was. I just don't see the problem with liking someone and wanting to be with someone. If you like someone and they like you back, isn't it natural to date and fall in love?"

Keith makes a small noise of irritation like I wasn't getting the point he was trying to make. "Forget it. Can we just talk about something else? Or better yet, not talk at all?"

Pissed off, I glare at him. "Fine."

After a few minutes, Keith lowers his menu, "We should order something so we don't look weird," he informs me. "Here," he slides his arm over the table and holds his hand out to me. I hand him a 10 dollar bill for my food. He hands it back, frowning.

"No, idiot, give me your hand,"

For some reason, jumping to the conclusion that Keith wanted this so he could chop it off to see if it regrows like a lizard's tail, I quickly hid them below the table, "Why?" I frown

"To play the role." he huffs, agitated

"What role?"

"Lance, this is a cafe known for dates." he informs me as a matter of factly, "It's weird for the two of us to come in here unless it's a date or something close to it."

My brain stops working. "A what?" I whisper

"A date." he reached over to grab my arm, forcing my hand back to the table to hold it.

And- yup, there it is. I'm officially holding hands with Keith.

My brain began to kick into overdrive, locking back and forth with Keith's hand, to his eyes darting around the menu, indifferent to this whole thing. His thumb moved over my knuckles in an affectionate way, yet his eyes held nothing to the motion. He didn't care about any of this, just keeping his ears to the conversation Shiro and Matt were having.

To him, this was nothing more than acting, a role to play to get information. It meant nothing to him, so it should mean nothing to me.

However…

"What are you going to order?"

I feel like I'm about to explode and I must have looked like it too because Keith inhales sharply when he sees my red face. I'm not kidding; it turned full red- my arms too. If there were ever a moment to curse my unknown heritage, right now would be the time.

Keith is at a loss for words, making an incoherent noise to question what my problem was.
I start screaming a moment later because I can feel them...

My ears, growing pointed at the rushing tightens in my chest. I scramble to grab a large napkin, tossing it over my head.

It covers my ears, which had come out to say Hi because my heart was currently going through palpitations.

Ducking down, knowing the entire cafe was probably looking at us from that outburst, I desperately hide below that napkin, forcing myself to breathe.

Forget everything else. Just breathe. They aren't there, and I'm alone.

Breathe.

When I feel safe enough, I peek out, quite chatter echoing around me.

The first thing I see is Keith. He's angry, and he probably has every right to be since I blew our cover. His priorities were on the mission after all, not on me almost getting revealed in front of dozens of people.

I don't know why I thought for even a moment he would be worried about me in that way.

"What is wrong with you?" he hissed darkly.

"I-I'm sorry." I stammer. Before I could continue my apology, a voice spoke up.

"Keith?"

Keith choked on his own spit, realizing that Shiro has spotted us. He got up from his chair to approach us, checking to make sure everything is okay. "Hey little brother." he pats his head.

Keith visibly relaxes under the touch, putting on a smile. "Hey."

"What are you doing here?"

"Just thought we'd get some lunch," Keith says without missing a beat. Shiro's eyes trail over to me. I quickly take the napkin off my head, smiling nervously.

"You are-" he pauses, forgetting my name.

"Lance,"Keith answers for him.

"Your roommate," he recalls. He lowers his hand, eyeing Keith curiously, "I'm surprised to see you both here. Is he…?" he trails off

"I-I'm-" I stammer, realizing we were about to get caught.

"My boyfriend." Keith's voice cuts through the silence too fast for me to even properly realize what he said. After a few seconds, it clicks.

"Huh?!"

"Your boyfriend?" Shiro looks just as shocked as I am. I'm jumping to correct him since I'm definitely not his boyfriend.

Keith steps on my toes under the table, giving me a little look that said "if you don't go along with this, I'll kill you," So with the most considerable mental debate I've ever had in my life, I complied.

"Keith," Shiro smiles like he is so proud, "I'm happy to see you getting out there again." he puts a hand on his shoulder, squeezing. " I know how you can get through, so make sure you treat Lance nicely," he instructs.

Oh god, I think I'm going to faint. Someone, please, get me- get me some oxygen, stat!

"Shiro." Keith sighs

"You want to join us over here? I'm sure Matt would like to meet Lance too." Shiro smiles sweetly.

"Thanks, Shiro, but we were just leaving. Lance just recalled he had an assignment he needed to do and was freaking out about it." Keith gets up and motions for me to do the same.

"Oh. Right." I nod slowly. "An assignment."

"We should get going." Taking my hand, the warmth of his fingers sending a tingling sensation up my arm, I hold my breath.

Playing the role like a pro, Keith turns, squeezes my hand and says, "Let's go,"

I nod numbly, unable to form words and just following obediently.

Once we were safely out of hearing and seeing distance, he drops my hand and stuffs his own back into his pocket. "Great." he sounds pissed. "Way to blow our cover."

Anger boils into my gut, "Excuse me for freaking out because you stink at communicating!"

"I told you we were acting!" he whirls around. "You are the one who got weird."

"Because you said we were- on a date! And then you were the one who told Shiro we were dating!" I accused him. He points back, furious.

"It would have been too suspicious if we were there as just friends!"

"So you just instantly tell Shiro we're dating?"

He turns away, pinching the bridge of his nose. Taking a deep breath, he concludes, "It isn't a big deal, Lance."

I lower my gaze, my chest aching. "It is to me."

"What was that?" he grumbles over his shoulder. I wave it off.

"Nothing." I sigh. Because my thoughts didn't matter, right? As long as Keith got to do what he wants everything was just fine! Keep me up late into the hours, worry me when he stays out super late, always reminding me of how messed up I am….

Keith wasn't a bad guy to me, not even close. I just wish he had some respect for me. He finds me amusing, and sometimes we can talk and be nice to each other, but that wasn't what I wanted.

To be seen as a person with thoughts and feelings to him would be nice.

It would be the best thing in the world, actually.

We don't have to be friends, or anything past that if he didn't want to. Just an understanding that I was like him and not like something up on his wall.

"Sorry I screwed up." I tell him gently.

Accepting that, we have no choice but to return to Keith's bike and head back to the Garrison.

"I can't believe Shiro even bought that."

Keith didn't turn around to ask, "Bought what?"

"That we're a couple?" I say awkwardly.

"Isn't that hard to believe." he shrugs, taking his helmet off his bike to put it on, "He knows I have a thing for blue eyes."

He has what now?! Holy shit, was that some news that I needed to know. My color blue in particular? So it wasn't that surprising that Shiro would believe Keith would date someone like me?

Is that good or bad?

Shit, I'm supposed to be mad at this guy right now, and my heart won't shut up.

"Here." When Keith turns, he gets to witness my face going through some serious mental struggles. My skin flickered like lights to all sorts of different colors. It settled on a crimson hue, a not very subtle blush.

Stammering, which is something he never did, Keith demanded, "W-What are you blushing for?"

"Y-You- You surprised me!" I insist desperately, already feeling my ears starting to peek out.

"What about that is surprising?"

"Just- stop talking!"

I scramble for the hood on my jacket to cover myself, taking a few minutes to breathe before I'm ready to head back to the Garrison.

"You are so weird." Keith shakes his head. "Guess I can add red to the colors you can turn into."

"Shut up," I grumble. The ride wasn't as nice one the way back.

"Do we uh- have to pretend to be dating every time we see Shiro now?" I ask when we get into our dorms. Keith stops, groans, and slaps his forehead, cursing his stupid idea.

"Yes. I don't just date anyone, so we gotta make this seem legit or he'll get suspicious,"

I nod meekly, rubbing my arm. I hated to admit that the idea of dating Keith, even if just pretend, was enticing. "What should we do then?"

"I'll just 'break up with you' in a few weeks, maybe a month. I'll say you just wanted attention and didn't actually care about me or something," he shrugs, tossing on his pajama shirt

I gawk at him over my shoulder, "I would never date someone for that shallow of a reason. Why are you making me the bad guy in this?"

Keith doesn't look at me as he fluffs his pillow, "Because that's why I've broken up with any relationship I've had," he explains, his voice void of any indication of feeling to this information.

I'm not sure what to say for a few minutes, finding myself weakly asking, "Really? Every time?"

"Don't make a big deal about it. Just know Shiro would believe it. And does it really matter what I tell him? We aren't actually dating. We aren't even friends."

The nonchalant admittance of that is more painful than I expected it to be.

So even Keith felt that we weren't friends.

"Oh." my voice drops. Catching onto it, Keith turns to look at me.

There is hesitance, "Did you think we were?" He asks me.

Desperate to hide the hurt I knew would show on my face, I turn away. I go to my side of the room, turn off my light, and crawl into bed. I can feel Keith's eyes on me. He calls to me once, then twice.

"I asked you a question." he is in front of my bed. I ignore him, burying myself into the safety of my sheets. "I'm serious." his voice grows softer. "Am I a friend to you?"

I didn't even know anymore.

And way to end this chapter on a sour note, me.

But hey! Merry Christmas everyone!