Catch the Stars ||Keith Kogane||

40

Trip rested back in her seat, wondering how long it would take for word to reach the entire army about the challenge being accepted. Braut liked to run his mouth, he was probably at the pub now announcing it to anyone who would listen. She could already hear the mutters of the guards at the door, whispering to each other about what they had just heard.

"I have a lot of questions," Haron coughs to pull her attention back to him, "starting with him." He points a large finger in Keith's direction, speaking his language so he knew what was being said about him, "why are you here, paladin?"

Keith gives a dry look at the second, but he didn't have an answer. He honestly had no idea why he was the only paladin allowed on this adventure. Trip got along better with the others. She and Lance were are what Keith would call "friends" and even Pidge and her have had more pleasant conversations than the two of them. Plus, she was more than capable of shoving him off the pod the entire way here.

So he clenches his jaw and says, "I don't know. Ask her," and he waves towards Trip, who looked exhausted before this conversation even started.

She sends him a pointed look, "who's the one that wouldn't take no for an answer?" she questions.

"As if you couldn't have stopped me if you wanted too?!" He rolls his eyes, irritating her in the way that she'd found only he could.

Nobody else's smart comments had ever gotten under her skin so easily until Keith. She points a finger at him, opening her mouth to yell. She wasn't sure what she was going to yell, just that it would probably make her feel better to do it. And the way he's looking at her says he's expecting it to happen.

"God, you two fight like a married couple," a new voice enters the room, from the doorway that led into the war room.

Everyone looks over to see who had been hiding in the hut the entire time Braut had been here. Trip wasn't shocked to see Haylie walking towards them. She was shocked, however, to see her in her Olympian armor again. It had been a while since she'd been able to fit it.

The leather was shining in the light of the torches on the wall, the symbol of first line branded onto the center. It was very similar to Trip's, with a few modifications to fit her own needs. Such as the raised leather collar to protect her throat, and her metal mask was turned around and hanging backwards from her neck. The dark colors of the armor made her pink skin and hair seem even brighter.

Trip looked past her, and at the baby that sat on her hip. Ella was sitting calmly, the stuffed elephant in her arms and gumming on its ear.

"Ella!" Trip says her name in glee, standing up from her chair, "you've gotten so big!"

The baby looks towards the new motion in the room, and pulls the elephant from her mouth when she sees who it is. Her chubby arms reach out, dropping the toy in favor of her aunt. She grin a toothless grin and squeals.

The air shakes with the high-pitched sound, and everyone in the room flinches. Even Haylie, who could do much worse on her own. Trip jumps at how loud it was, but reaches for her niece anyway. Haylie passes her happily, bringing her newly freed hand up to her ear to see if it was bleeding.

"And louder," Trip notices out loud, putting the child on her hip.

"Try living with two of them," Haron grunts, still standing by the throne and watching how happy Ella is to be taken in by her aunt. Past his thick bear, Trip can almost pick out an underbite smile.

Once Haylie is convinced her eardrums haven't burst, she grumbles, "nice to see you too."

Trip ignores her, smiling at Ella brighter than she's smiled in a long time. And Ella had her hands wrapped around Trip's long hair, tugging at it and babbling words of nonsense. And then her blue eyes start to wander around the room, jumping up and down in Trip's arms as she told her all about what was on her 4-month old brain.