A Beginning, A Middle, An End

Chapter 4 - Last Kiss

As they made their way through the passage Keith found it to be not as narrow as he had originally thought. It was, however, a lot colder. Then again, what had he been expecting? Dusk was fast approaching and anyone who knew anything about the desert knew that

the nights were a lot worse than the days. If Shiro noticed Keith's discomfort he didn't say anything.

A little while later Shiro spoke. "Since we're nearly there would you mind closing your eyes?"

"You know, all of this is starting to feel really familiar Takashi." Keith replied as he closed his eyes. The second they were closed he felt Shiro take his hand. While he was positive that this was to guide him and make sure he didn't walk into anything, there was always the chance that Shiro had wanted to hold his hand for the majority of the time that they'd been out here and now he had an excuse to.

"Careful. This bit is a bit of a squeeze." Shiro said.

Once Keith reached the part that Shiro had warned him about he couldn't help, but laugh slightly. It was a little tight, sure, but it was nowhere near "a bit of a squeeze" like he had said it was. When Keith got to the end of this part he felt the walls that had just been brushing against him completely disappear. They must've finally exited the passage.

"You can open your eyes now."

Before them was an oasis. It wasn't any old oasis though, it was a canyon oasis. This part of the canyon was a lot bigger and more open than the rest of it. It also had a perfect view of the sky. There was a small waterfall spilling from high up in the canyon wall. On either side of the pool of water were two small fever trees. As expected, the trees weren't the only sign of greenery. There were a couple of bushes and quite a few different types of grasses around the area. In the center was a picnic.

Keith smiled. "Takashi, is this what I think it is?" he asked, still looking at the set up in amazement. Nobody had ever done something like this for him.

He felt Shiro wraps his arms around his waist, pull him in close and kiss his neck. "Yeah, it is. We've been together for nearly a year now and I thought we'd do something special in celebration."

That last part confused Keith. Surely they should be doing something special on the day of when they met rather than a few months before? Was something going on that he wasn't aware of? He decided against voicing that thought, if something was going on Shiro would, hopefully, tell him later on.

The picnic was perfect. Shiro had somehow managed to get his hands on prohibited food, some of which were Keith's favourites.

Night had fallen a few minutes after they'd finished eating and currently Keith and Shiro were talking and stargazing. Their conversation wasn't based around any particular subject. Instead they were just talking about whatever came to mind. Still Shiro hadn't said anything about why they were celebrating early. Perhaps he should ask?

Before he had a chance to he saw something streak across the sky. That something was then followed by a couple others. Shortly after that a lot of these streaks started to streak across the sky.

"What the?"

"Finally," Shiro said "I was starting to worry I'd brought you out here on the wrong night."

That was when Keith realised what those streaks across the sky was. It was a meteor shower! Now he understood why they were celebrating so early.

Towards the end of the shower Shiro moved closer to Keith and gently kissed his cheek. "Did you enjoy that?" he asked.

"Very much so." Keith replied.

"I'm glad. It's too late to head back to the Garrison so we should probably head straight for the shack. Go back to the Garrison in the morning."