"Keith!"

Keith whipped his head around towards the balcony and squinted at Shiro's figure running down the long corridor. Said figure then proceeded to jump from the balustrade instead of the typical staircase that was only mere metres from where he already was, and Keith yelled in shock as Shiro hurled himself down to where Keith stood, blasting his jetpack halfway down to slow his descent. He landed in a roll in front of Keith as if he had simply just taken a walk.

Keith stared at him.

"What the fuck?"

Shiro rubbed the back of his neck, "I needed to talk to you before you make anymore rash decisions."

Keith sighed and pushed past him, heading for an exit to the room. "There's nothing for us to discuss." But he barely took another step before Shiro gripped his arm and turned him around.

"No- Keith, what do you want? Please, just tell me." Shiro pleaded. "Every time I ask you to tell me what you think, you shy away from it. You make these decisions without telling any of us how you feel. Aren't we supposed to talk about it first?"

"I don't want to talk about it. It doesn't concern you."

" 'Doesn't concern me'?" Shiro scoffed and Keith found himself pulling away. "Do you not care about how everyone would feel about your decision?"

"It's not that I haven't considered your feelings." Keith explained, shuffling his feet. "It's just that… You're just overthinking it now because you've gotten used to having me around. It won't matter and you'll get used to me being gone again. I just want to get out of your hair... It'll be better like this."

"How? Keith, you just-" Shiro reeled himself in. "You just don't know how much you're worth."

"I know my worth."

"No, you don't. You won't be running away from all this if you knew how much you're worth. And how much you mean to me."

Keith stiffened as if Shiro had struck him across the face. He stared at Shiro's distress and frustration burning across his face, and his heart ached, wanting to reach out, but he kept himself still as he waited for Shiro to speak.

"Keith, you-" Shiro bit his lip. "Let's run away together."

"What?" Keith could barely breathe.

"We can go and live somewhere. Find a planet far from the heart of this war. Settle down and live. We can stay away from all this if that's what you want."

"Shiro, you can't do that!"

"And why not?"

"Because you're the fucking Black Paladin!" Keith yelled.

"They're easily replaced, you've said it yourself."

"No, I said that I am easily replaced."

"No, you're not, and you never will be, okay? No- Keith, listen to me," Shiro held up his finger to Keith's lip to silence him. "I love you, and it took me until recently to realise it. You matter so much to me. And fuck the universe if they want to wage war for the rest of eternity. Fine. But I don't want to live everyday, waking up and questioning if you're safe out there somewhere. I don't want to live knowing I missed my chance to spend time knowing you and living a life with you."

Keith pressed his lips together, if only to stop himself from saying something as Shiro lowered his finger. He had yearned for those words, and for those very images of being able to be with Shiro, to be able to love so freely and wholly without caring about the rest of the universe because he has already known of Shiro's affections - the way he sometimes look at Keith a bit too long, the way he held him so tenderly that it made Keith want to cry. And it was a beautiful thing to witness, but it was no use to take anymore of it for himself now.

Keith shook his head. "This war is bigger than us. You can't just follow me into an abyss."

"Then what gives you the right to go to an abyss? I promised you that I would be there for you, and you told me I didn't have to do everything alone, that no one expected me to be invincible. Yet, you just expect so much of yourself and worship me as some sort of all forgiving, selfless god." Shiro waved his hand in the air and dropped them, his arm plates smacking against his legs.

"I'm not saying you are."

"But you act like it. And I'm not as selfless as you think. And you need to stop expecting so much of yourself because you've started to believe that you amount to nothing."

"I'm a danger!" Keith cried. "I can and have done things that make me want to peel my own skin off. Do you know how many nights I've laid in bed, hoping that one day when I sleep, I will just sleep forever so that we could all get some sort of peace for once?"

Shiro breathed. "Keith, that's just selfish. Your death isn't going to solve anything."

Keith scoffed and his voice rose. "Oh , so I'm selfish for wanting to do us a damn favour and get the fuck out of your way, but you're not for risking the entire fate of the universe, and for what? " He suddenly softened. And for what?

For love, of course. For Keith, as if this life he lived was equivalent to the rest of the universe. And parts of Keith was once again wistful and confused as his fury from before settles into a melancholic echo in his mind.

"You're right," Shiro admitted. "I am selfish. And I'd rather be selfish and save you than be selfless and lose you."

No , Keith was going to leave. He couldn't let Shiro continue this train of thought. He was packing. He needed to get out of here and leave to a place where he can't hurt anyone. He shook his head and stepped back, ready to turn himself away because if he stood here any longer, he might have just believed Shiro and let his resolve crumble. It was the safest way. He had reassured himself ten times over that this was the best way to keep everyone safe, and Keith was going to be damned if he ever hurt Shiro again.

Shiro caught on quickly to Keith's retreat, and he sprung forward, pulling Keith back by his arm and threw him towards the centre of the room. Keith only had a moment to reorient himself, and saw Shiro squaring him up. He stared intently at Keith with his body slightly turned, and his right fist clenching tightly.

"Fight me." Shiro said.

"Shiro- I'm not going to fight you. This is stupid."

Shiro swung his fists, and Keith quickly dodged, stumbling to get away from the onslaught of attacks.

"Shiro, what the fuck?" Keith barely said the words when Shiro made another move that demanded Keith to raise his forearms, blocking the strike. Shiro stared down at him with a fury in his eyes, and Keith knew then, that he will only get out of this in one way.

Keith kicked at Shiro's abdomen to create distance between them. Then he charged with a cry as Shiro prepared to block. But just as he was about attempt at another kick, he felt something - like a burst of light, of energy concentrating into something potent and powerful. Shiro's arm powered up, glowing a brilliant hot white. Keith wasn't going to survive if he didn't dodge.

Keith ducked quickly as Shiro's fist came above his head, and he used the chance to grab onto Shiro's arm and flipped him over. He straddled Shiro's waist as he pinned the glowing hand to the floor under one foot, and his hand was at Shiro's neck. He could distinctly feel the restless energy inside him waiting to be released. It existed at his beck and call, and with just a little more concentration, he could grab onto the quintessence signature below him and destroy it just like that.

But then he repressed it, let it fizzle out from the flame that it was. Shiro inhaled sharply below him, trying to catch his breath from when it was knocked out of him as he hit the floor. "Even when I'm attacking you, you still won't hurt me."

With a sigh, Keith pulled himself upright. He tucked his legs into Shiro's side so he would remain stable atop, then squeezed his eyes shut - not that it ever blocked his vision, now that he wasn't even seeing by light. "You're insane," he said.

They remained quiet for a while before Shiro sighed tiredly, "I know I'm asking a lot, but you have to believe in your own goodness, Keith. I believe in your goodness, because there's no one out there that has as much of it in them as you. And you believe me, right?" He thrusted his right arm out in front of Keith, "Do what you did before - that day."

"Shiro-" Keith choked.

"I trust you. You won't hurt me. I promise. You won't hurt me - I won't let you." Shiro reaffirmed and shook his arm again, relentless.

Keith swallowed and cautiously took the arm into his lap, letting his quintessence reach outward, trying to focus on the metal hand in front of him. The feedback was a serene calmness - a grounding calmness that was Shiro's presence. Then he felt something else as Shiro fixed his eyes on Keith; warm and soft and so very powerful and passionate.

Keith sucked in a deep breath, trying to ignore it, because he would have spent an eternity bathing in that feeling if he had all the time in the world. He pushed past it and didn't dare to look at Shiro as he searched.

Then he felt the arm. It was inorganic, much like the Castle of Lions with energy thrumming in its walls. It was efficient, if not almost similar to how quintessence would flow through an organic material with the slight difference in its colour. Keith prodded at it further and almost jumped as an ice cold feeling travelled to his fingertips. He could sense the sinister energy that shouldn't be there to remind him of the chilling feeling of fighting druids. It was wrong. But Keith didn't know what it was nor if two quintessence signatures that are so different could exist within the same thing.

He withdrew his fingers from Shiro's arm, hoping Shiro hadn't noticed the slight hitch in Keith's breath at the discovery. Immediately after removing his fingers, the arm felt as before, as if nothing was ever wrong with it.

Keith furrowed his brows. Could he have been hallucinating when he felt that dark and consuming energy radiating from Shiro's arm? He looked to find Shiro's expectant gaze, and immediately shook off the thought. Shiro's fine. There's nothing wrong with him.

As Keith straightened, footsteps sounded in the hallways as the other paladins arrived.

"We heard some fighting! What's going-" Allura's words trailed off as they all took noticed of the pair in front of them with wide eyes. And Keith remembered then that he was still straddling Shiro, with Shiro's hand still lying across his thighs, looking as if they've been caught engaging in something that everyone didn't need to see.

Pidge took off her glasses and stood behind the rest of the group, Hunk was giving him a thumbs up, and Allura was looking at Shiro with a very mischievous smirk that Keith didn't want to even try to know. Lance rolled his eyes as Keith scrambled off of Shiro, then Lance raised his hands to block everyone behind him and herded them out of the room. "Alright guys, nothing to see here. Just two bros being bros."

Keith simultaneously wanted to choke and thank Lance. His face was so warm he felt like he could spontaneously combust, and Shiro looked similarly abashed and giving Keith side glances as if apologetic.

The paladins began to walk out of the room - thank God - and Keith began to follow when Shiro stopped him and called out to the rest of them.

"You found something, didn't you?" Shiro asked. Keith held his breath and remained silent.

Shiro took that as his answer and turned to the paladins. "There's something wrong with my arm."

Pidge raised an eyebrow. "But it was fine the other day when I scanned it."

"No, this is apparently something alchemic. I felt it the other day when I was training. And Keith also felt something too. He's just unsure of what it is. Can you take a look, Allura?"

Allura spent a moment glancing at the prosthetic before she replied, pursing her lips, "Shiro, perhaps we should get an expert for this. I feel like this is out of my expertise at the moment."

"Yes, call in Muer." Hunk suggested. "I'm sure he'd be happy to help."

Keith almost yelled his objection. The last time Keith had talked to Muer, he was sure that the Taroussene had had enough of him and druids in general. Keith had originally hoped to never meet his mentor again before he left, but he didn't have a good reason to tell the paladins to not call for Muer now, not when Muer has been everything but loyal and supportive to Tarousse and Voltron, respectively.

So when Muer walked in with distaste in his aura as he saw Keith standing behind Shiro, Keith couldn't help but take steps to stand further behind the other paladins' figures. .

They quickly explained the circumstance to him. Muer gingerly took hold of Shiro's arm with three of his own, and it was little while later when he turned to them with as much confusion as Keith had before.

"There is something there that shouldn't be there." Muer said and turned to Shiro. "Since when have you started to feel such a thing?"

"Only recently, after a really rough training session." Shiro said, and Keith shoved his hands into the pockets of his trousers, if only to distract himself from being too surprised by those words.

"I have only speculations on what could possibly be affecting your arm. But I believe this is best if I speak privately to the Paladins of Voltron." Muer looked at Allura, but Keith could feel the distrust directed at him. He had an inkling of a feeling that whatever Muer was going say was going to be about him, and perhaps destroy whatever trust Allura ever had left for him.

But then Allura and Shiro shared a look, and she stepped forward. "Whatever you're about to say, you can say it to everyone in this room as we are all Paladins of Voltron."

Muer stared blankly with an unreadable expression on his face. Then he nodded. "As you wish. I suspect that someone was actively trying to sabotage Voltron through the Black Paladin."

A resounding gasp filled the room. "What?" Lance shouted.

"There is a dark and toxic energy residing within that arm in concentrations that I've only ever seen capable of by druids. But given that you have not been in contact with any druids during your time on Tarousse, or have you encountered druids for a long while, I can only make a guess as to who could have caused it."

"Who?" Allura asked.

Muer glanced at Keith, as if waiting for Keith to admit some sinister secret, but Kieth only stared back. There was no point in hiding his actions now. He had a feeling that they would find out about this one day. He just hadn't expected it to be so soon.

"I suspect an Empire spy." Muer crossed his two sets of arms and stared directly in Keith's direction. "And I believe the spy is standing behind you."

The paladins turned to Muer's line of sight, and erupted.

Lance scoffed. "Okay, I know that Keith's an idiot but he can't be both an idiot and an Empire spy."

"Hey man, what's your deal?" Hunk crossed his arms.

"What you're saying doesn't make a bit of sense." Pidge patronised.

"Keith is the only one I know who can possibly do this besides us Taroussenes. But I know none of us have done this as one of us would have noticed someone doing something so tainted." Muer almost spat the words. "Tell them." He said to Keith. "Tell them about what you've done in Ronan."

"What he had done in Ronan?" Allura questioned, then looked at Keith, confused. "What is he talking about, Keith?"

Keith could only try not to bow his head and make himself look more incriminating that he already sounded. He couldn't find words to explain to them, to justify to Allura, especially, that he had willingly played dirty in order to win, that he used the very twisted form of alchemy that they were trying to destroy.

But before Keith could say anything, Muer was already recalling the story of his mistakes. And with every word that was spoken, Keith suddenly felt the shame again, as if his actions were sins and for which phantom weights attached to his limbs were his punishments. The piercing gaze of the paladins went to him as the story finished, and there was a mixture of reactions, mostly shock.

"Keith, is this true?" Hunk asked tentatively.

"Yes." Keith could only dejectedly confirm. "But I'm not a spy. You know I'm not."

And Shiro, who had been so impassive and quiet that Keith almost forgot he was there, suddenly spoke. "I've known Keith for years now. There's no way that Keith could ever be a Galra spy. I can vouch for him."

"But who else could have done such a thing to the Black Paladin? One would need direct access to the arm and thereby free access in the Castleship. And the only one who fits that description is you." Muer narrowed his eyes at Keith.

"Perhaps if there was a method to test to track whoever was doing these things." Pidge piped up and turned to Muer. "You said that quintessence had a specific signature to them, and that was the basis for your security system for your base in Ronan."

Muer nodded. "That is correct."

"Right, and that's also how Allura was the only one able to pilot the Castleship, because it only registers hers as the rightful captain."

"That is also true." Allura confirmed.

"Then perhaps we could analyse the one in Shiro's arm to find the person responsible for this with however you guys do it - you know, alchemically." Pidge suggested.

"That is an excellent solution Pidge. However, I feel like there's another important question to address here." Allura held her chin in thought. "The fact remains that someone has done something to Shiro, and I suspect this was done by Haggar during your second capture, Shiro."

"You were previously captured by the druids, Black Paladin?" Muer looked at Shiro, surprised.

"Yes. Twice. It was how I got this arm." Shiro displayed his prosthetic.

"I see." Something shifted in Muer's expression then. And to Keith's own surprise, it felt like shame and remorse.

"We need to find a way to get that energy out of your arm." Allura declared.

"You could try to cleanse the arm of that energy." Muer suggested. "But doing so also means that the person doing it will be susceptible to being hurt by that very energy as well. They are essentially absorbing it, and if not done carefully, they could accidentally hold it within themselves and risk creating a dark entity."

"A dark entity?"

"Dark entities made of pure, twisted quintessence. They exist in the quintessence field." He explained. "There must be an outlet for that dark energy. One cannot just remove it from the Black Paladin's arm without redirecting it elsewhere."

"Like the Law of Conservation of Energy, basically." Hunk quipped.

"It will be difficult to find anyone capable and willing to do it, especially because of the risks involved. I don't think many of my people would be willing even for a Paladin-"

"I'll do it." The paladins turned to Keith in shock once more. Keith held his head and with as much determination he could amount into his words, he spoke. "I'll do it."

"Keith, are you serious?" Lance placed his hands on his hips. "This isn't some newbie stuff, and you've only known how to do this for… how long?"

Keith looked at Muer. "You said it needed to be someone capable and willing. I'm evidently willing and I've done things past ethical already. If you teach me the techniques, I might be able to do it. There's no one more suited for this than me."

"If you're doing this because you feel guilty for what you did to me, don't ." Shiro gripped his arm worryingly. But there was nothing Shiro could do to change his mind at this point. Keith had caused this inadvertently, but he was going to fix it regardless.

Muer was fixed on him for a moment before he spoke. "I will only teach you if Voltron can say they fully trust you, and that I can be assured that you are no threat to my plane and the rest of the good universe. And that when the time comes, you will know what to do if you make one too many missteps to ignore."

Turn yourself in. Repent in whatever ways that matter.

It was ominous, and the way Muer spoke felt like an ultimatum, like a test of the goodness in him. But when he turned to Shiro, who squeezed his hands and nodded, he felt something akin to hope. So Keith nodded, because he had trusted Shiro before, and he hadn't been wrong to do so.

As he glanced around the room, he found everyone's gaze upon him, strong and supporting, especially from Allura, who donned a pleased smile and then turned to Muer. "Votron will be responsible for everything from here on. You can rest assured that no blame will come upon you, and no harm will come upon anyone. You have our word."

Keith's duties were placed aside to learn from the Taroussenes instead. The technique was best taught and demonstrated by specialised people, and they were more than happy to show Keith the ropes. They didn't question why Keith needed to know it; Muer had not told anyone else about what Keith did, and neither had Olea - the girl he rescued had apparently left with her family on one of the Coalition's ships to a more peaceful planet. At least, Keith assumed they haven't, as no one has given him a glaring side-eye.

The day that his mentors told him that he had finally grasped the technique was a day he somewhat dreaded. He went to find Shiro in his room after dinner, and Shiro invited him in, opting to sit on the floor whilst Keith sat on the bed with Shiro's arm lying on his lap again whilst Keith goes about his work.

It was a straightforward method in theory, but extremely fiddly in reality. Keith reached out with his quintessence, searching for that dark energy that's so ready to latch onto anything pure and alive. He could only describe it as a game of tug of war, but you're not aiming to win. Instead, he let it take hold of him, and with a quick and determined thought, he swapped some of his quintessence into Shiro's arm and took the same amount of darker quintessence into himself.

The two quintessence were like water and oil, and Keith's meager amount floated aimlessly above the abundant that remains in Shiro's arm. This would take many sessions as Keith could only work up to a certain amount before he was holding too much dark quintessence that it was fighting his own.

The first time, he managed to work for two hours whilst Shiro read on his datapad before feeling the pain building up inside him. And it was Shiro finally pointing out how Keith wasn't breathing well for him to realise that he needed to stop. Shiro wouldn't let him continue until he let the dark quintessence out in an aggressive session in the training room and let himself recharge for a day.

"I knew you were right in the beginning." Shiro told him after. "Thanks for doing this for me."

Keith felt like he should be thanking him for believing in him.

The second time, Shiro placed down his datapad and asked him about his day. The sessions were almost always gossip sessions after that. One time Pidge accompanied them and spent the two hours enlightening Keith with stories that would make Matt want to bury her alive, Shiro recalled some of his own from the few years spent as Matt's roommate, and Keith achieved less than he would have wanted for that session, but he was too busy laughing to care.

This time, Shiro asked a surprising question. "How are you doing this?"

"What do you mean? This cleansing thing?"

"No, the whole alchemy thing in general. Is it… a Galra thing?"

Keith shrugged. "I don't know. Coran guessed that too. He said it wasn't uncommon for Galras to have some sort of alchemic ability if the gene was introduced into the bloodline at some point, especially given that cross-species marriage between Alteans and Galras were common before the war started. So I guess they were entertaining the idea that some ancestor of mine could have been an Altean alchemist."

"So it's been Altean this entire time? And you're basically part Altean?"

"Not really. I was actually told that the Galras used to be quintessence sensitive as well, though apparently that gene has begun to die out. That's why it's so hard to recruit new Blade members. The way that we transform them is a sort of quintessence manipulation. You can only use someone else's' blade if you're their family and have a similar quintessence signature."

There aren't many left that could do what Keith, Haggar and the druids do, though Keith still wondered what species they are, exactly. Coran and Muer had ran tests on him to get a DNA sample, and there was such a miniscule resemblance to a part of the Altean gene that Coran rejected his initial theory.

The new theory was that his human gene had complimented his Galra genes, specifically the ones to do with the ability to sense and control quintessence. The gene evidently still existed within his mother, and was heightened to such a level because of some strange human gene - the very ones that allowed the paladins a strong connection to the Lions.

Keith couldn't hear the rest of Coran's theory after that as he had already excused himself from Coran's science experiments - engineers are, and always will be, nerds. And sadly, Keith wasn't nerd enough to be an engineer student.

However, Shiro was - in fact - and engineering student before he decided to be a pilot, and had more questions about Keith's abilities because he was a giant nerd that loves Einstein. One night, Shiro stared at his arm with a melancholy that Keith dared not ask about, and came up with another question, "Do you think you could heal your own eyes?"

"Why do you think that?"

"I just thought… the druids could heal, if they wanted that is. You could try it on yourself."

"Shiro, it didn't work for you."

"I know." Shiro continued to stare at the arm. "It doesn't work for me, but that's because I didn't have any tissues left to actually heal. But maybe your eyes might just need some patience.

Keith promised him to try, though on most days, by the time Keith finished the session, Shiro would have fallen asleep, his head resting on the side of Keith's leg, and Keith would be too tired to do anything else for himself.

He smiled softly as his fingers dared to carded through the tuft of white hair - it wasn't easy to catch Shiro so relaxed and free from stress. The creases on his forehead receded, if only temporarily until tomorrow when Shiro would wake up and frown at the breakfast goo, because while he didn't complain, he had the right to dislike it.

Keith tucked Shiro some nights. Other nights, Shiro woke up as Keith shifted his leg and went to bed on his own accord, and Keith mourned slightly as he goes back to his own room every time.

They've talked about a lot of things, the deeds of their day, the funny gossip, the existential questions, but the one thing that Keith still hasn't dared to bring up was his next plans, and Shiro's confession from that day.

It haunted him. The three words, spoken in Shiro's low and warm voice. Keith had wondered if it was something only said out of desperation in the moment, but then he remembered how Shiro was willing to give everything up and realised that perhaps, Shiro's affections were as genuine as he said it was, and as genuine as Keith thought they were. And it was difficult, after knowing that, to break Shiro's heart.

But it was only timely when Kolivan finally asked Keith at the end of a meeting about his next move will do now that this mission was over. Keith turned himself away from Shiro's gaze. "I'm still thinking about it."

That night, Shiro was quieter than usual, and it seemed neither of them wanted to address the burning question. It wasn't until Shiro admitted to defeat at trying to distract himself on the datapad did he turn to Keith. "Are you leaving again?"

Keith feigned nonchalance as he shrugged, continuing to fix Shiro's arm. He didn't want a repeat of the last time he told Shiro that he was leaving. He was still trying to avoid this conversation for as long as possible.

Shiro took his arm from Keith and moved to sit cross legged in front of him. Keith turned his face down, some part unprepared and unsure of his own decisions. Leaving seemed like a bad decision again when Shiro had shown to have hated it every other time he tried to leave. And Keith was ready to defend himself before Shiro took his hands and met his eyes.

The steel grey eyes reflected no small amount of patience and love in them, and Keith almost felt his throat closing, choking on the emotions he hadn't dared to say.

"What do you want, Keith?" Shiro gently asked. "Ignore what everyone has ever said, ignore what I've ever thought or said to you. Tell me. What do you want?"

Before Shiro, Keith never really thought about the future. He used to want to be a firefighter, but then that dream disappeared as quickly as the crumbling house his father ran into; Keith grew up, and he learnt how much of his father he had lost to the fire. After Shiro, he had a direction, an opportunity to find something he loved and follow taught him to see the world as wonders, have ambitions and things that kept him going.

All this time, he thought Shiro was that end goal, and he thought to follow Shiro to the edge of the universe.

But when Shiro asked him what he wanted, Keith knew he wanted to live. He wanted to go out there and live a life worth living, even if the reality is that he loved Shiro so much he wondered if he could ever love another person as much and realised he couldn't. Shiro was here, and he loved Shiro so much, but there was nothing else for him to do here now but leave.

In the end, Keith made a choice. "I want to go back to the Blades and do my part in this war, like everyone else is. I want to go out there and live." Like you do .

Keith waited for a response, staring at their touching hands, feeling how cold Shiro's hands always were. Then, Shiro nodded, staring down at their hands as Keith was. If there were moments in his life that Keith didn't ever want to see, this might be one of them. Shiro looked as conflicted as how Keith felt, and when Shiro finally lifted his head and gave him a smile so warm and soft but so aching and painful, as if it hurted to look at Keith.

"You know I love you, right?"

The words gripped his heart, his breath, his thoughts and his every senses. Keith knew - he knew so well of that love and he was so thankful of that love that it hurted to try and return that love. He squeezed Shiro's hands and choked down his every longing thoughts. He reached out to Shiro with his quintessence senses, bathing in the warm glow of his presence, committing it to memory.

He returned that smile with his own sad, pathetic one that hurted almost as much as looking at the man in front of him.

"I know," he replied, and waited until he had enough courage to say the following words. "And I love you."

Somehow, Shiro's smile brightened a bit, and his expression lightened just before he pulled Keith into his arms. "Okay," Shiro said.

And for the first time in a long time, Keith felt that it just might be true.

A/N (2020): This was not what i originally planned for Keith. So much changed within this story because I've been writing this since April last year, and wow, you really do change a lot within a small amount of time. I learned a lot about relationships in 2019, friendship, family and love like, so that's why Keith's path has also changed.
I hope you all enjoyed this! The final chapter is being outlined now and it won't be long now until we will be finished with this giant hunk of a thing! Thank you so much for reading! Leave a comment because I would love to hear from you!

A/N (2023): 2019 Meap literally almost got cuffed but then she was *afraid of emotional intimacy* (hah, idiot) and ended up breaking some poor engineer student's heart. Yet she didn't learn and hung around another (actual, working) engineer in 2021 and has been traumatised by engineer boys ever since. Anyways, don't date engineers (i say this as someone with a best friend in electrical engineering im sorry).