Catch the Stars ||Keith Kogane||

70

Trip hadn't made it to dinner. There had been no room for escape when Haylie had caught wind of the near-suicide mission she had gone on and offered all of her backup a way out of. Apparently, Harron had ratted her out. Even an hour after the briefing with Harron, she was still listening to Haylie's high-pitched screaming while the paladins ate in the dining hall.

"I can't believe you weren't going to take backup!" She scoffs for the millionth time, "and with no recuperation training! It's like you have a death wish, Trip!"

Trip lifts a finger below the screen, where she's counting how many times Haylie accused her of having a death wish. She was about to run out of fingers.

"Nobody died," Trip reiterates.

"But the odds were so far against you!"

There was no reasoning with her. Trip would just have to wait it out, which she was beginning to think would take all night. As another tangent begins, her mind starts to tune out.

She'd made camp for Haylie's rage in the star room, where the twinkling stars were staring at her through the glass. They were all different colors and sizes, and the exact same stars that were above her home of Olympia. Even if they weren't all seen, these stars had seen her go from a terrified child to the Commander. They knew more about her than anyone alive, even Haylie. They knew more about her than anyone who's died.

"And you're not even listening to me!" she catches.

"I can only hear the same thing again and again until I go insane," she looks back at the holographic screen of the Olympian communicator.

"And I can only say it so much..." Haylie seemed to have reached her limit, though her shoulders still held the angered tension of a worried sister, "You're so reckless sometimes, and it's only getting worse the older we've gotten."

Trip frowns, "I think my impulse control is just fine, thank you."

"I said reckless, not impulsive," Hayle defends with a hand going through her pink hair.

Trip shrugs, "Same thing on different ends."

There's the sound of an activating door behind her, pulling her scattered attention back together. She glances back over her shoulder, unsure who she thought it would be but sure of who she hoped it would be. She and Keith hadn't had any interaction since before the fight had started. He had been avoiding her since she'd broken their deal, at least she'd assumed that was what he was doing.

But there he stood, in the archway of the star room, a white plate from dinner in his hand filled with whatever Hunk had whipped up on such short notice and minimal energy. His eyes were going to each corner of the room, avoiding her face.

"Who is it?" Haylie huffs, "I can't see past your big head!"

Trip rolls her eyes but shifts the device so she can catch a glimpse of Keith, "it's Keith."

"Sorry," he says awkwardly. He lifts the plate, "I was just bringing Trip dinner."

"Hi, Keith," Haylie says in exasperation, "I guess that's my cue to stop yelling at you."

"You missed your cue an hour ago," Trip huffs, and her shoulders slouch forward. Harron had long abandoned this conversation to tend to Ella before morning. She'd hoped that would be the end of all lectures, but here she still sat, "Goodnight, Derin," (sister).

"Goodnight! I love you!" She angrily ends the call.

The silence is golden when Trip can finally set down the communicator, and she half expects Keith to set down the plate and walk away. She wasn't in the mood for more yelling, which is all she and he had spiraled into. It almost felt like they were back at the beginning. She's not sure if she's happy or wary as his footsteps approach her from behind.