A Game of Keith and Mouse

Running

Pidge was minding their own business when it happened. Keith ran through the room at full speed, leaping over the table with the robot Pidge was working on on it.

"What gives?" Pidge yelled at him. Keith didn't answer, just kept running. Pidge decided to follow him.

They followed him as he sprinted through rooms and bounded over furniture.

"What are you chasing?" Pidge shouted. Then it occurred to them that maybe Keith wasn't chasing anything. Maybe he was running from something.

Keith wasn't scared of anything Pidge knew about. He went into battles without fear, he loved fighting, he was always sacrificing himself, and the time Pidge saw him get stabbed, he didn't even bring it up until they were back at the castle.

In short, if Keith was running from something, it must be really bad.

Pidge followed Keith into the kitchen, where Hunk was cooking something.

"What's Keith running from?" Hunk asked Pidge.

"I don't know!" Pidge answered, "Probably something bad!"

Hunk began running next to them. "Good enough for me! Keith's scary, so if he's scared of something, then so am I!"

Both paladins followed Keith through the castle as he bounded over objects and around corners until Keith stopped running very suddenly, causing Hunk to run into him from behind.

Keith toppled over with the unexpected weight of Hunk. "Ack!"

"Sorry, man." Hunk said, getting off Keith.

"Where you guys following me?" Keith demanded.

"What were you running from?" Pidge countered.

"Running from? I wasn't running from anything. The only thing I'm scared of is abandonment, and I don't even run from that."

"That's why we figured if you were running from something it must be really bad."

"If you weren't running from something," Hunk asked, "Why were you running?"

With almost comical timing, the mice ran out from under Keith.

"It's not what it looks like!" Keith shouted.

"You were chasing the mice?" Pidge asked, unable to contain their laughter. "Seriously?"

"I was not chasing the mice!" Keith insisted. "Okay, well, I was, but only because they wouldn't stop bothering me to play with them. I did it for them, not because I enjoy chasing mice, because I don't!"

Pidge collapsed to the floor, laughing so hard that no sound came out of their mouth.

Hunk looked at Pidge, then to Keith. "I think you've broken Pidge."