Loving You to the Stars and Back // Keith x OC //

The Search for Scaultrite

47

With our jetpacks, we slowly descended the entryway that we just came in. Luckily with this new armor, I can fly on my own since the old outfit that Allura handed down to me didn't have one. I remember the last time back on Planet Arus, it was Keith who had helped me get back up to safer ground after investigating the burning village was just trick to get us away from the Castle of Lions.

As we touched down, Hunk grunted, "Ugh, yuck! What am I standing on?" I turn to look at Hunk, seeing that he had lifted his left foot that was covered in goo. I grimaced at sight, seeing how disgusting it was. "Is this a mucus pocket? I do not like mucus!"

Hunk panics as he has made aware of his surroundings. "Is that steaming stomach acid? Look, right over there! Oh, man, I really hope I don't see any blood." Hunk was already starting to freak out. The only thing that feared me at this moment when he's acting up was that Hunk might threaten to bail.

"Hunk, knock it off! You're freaking yourself out," It was like Keith was reading my mind, saying the words that I wanted to say.

"No, standing inches away from a pus-bubble is freaking me out," Hunk replies as he lands a heavy stomp on a small puddle that was just inches away. The substance fell on the ground and started to sizzle in seconds, causing Hunk to draw away in disgust.

"Hate to break it to you, Hunk, but we're inside a giant worm's stomach. In fact, the first of three," I spoke up bluntly, knowing there was no better way to tell Hunk the reality that was before us.

"Athena is right, there's no way to sugar coat it," Keith agrees."We're going to need that big brain of yours if we want to make it through. Will you be alright?" He asks. I turn to Keith, seeing how calm he was while taking the lead. Now I could really see why Shiro sees the leader within Keith. He just needs to be more disciplined.

Hunk groans as he continues to panic, frantically looking at his surroundings, "Will you be okay?" I repeated Keith's question.

"Uhh," Hunk looks over and makes eye contact with Keith. "Okay, okay," He takes in a deep breath. "I'll be okay."

"Good," Keith reaches out to Hunk, placing a hand on the Yellow Paladin's shoulder. "I gotta be able to count on you." Keith drops his arm to his side as he started to walk away, "Besides, no one knows an explosive digestive tract like you."

My jaw drops as I watched Keith make a distance from us, baffled to his comment to Hunk. From the corner of my eye, I could see Hunk shake his head and held his hands up, "Wait, wait, wait. Did you just make a joke?" He chuckles, "Seriously, that was a joke, wasn't it? You're saying I throw up a lot. I get it. It's funny."

Keith looked around before activating his jetpack to fly over to the other side. Hunk and I followed behind him as Hunk continued to talk, "Wow, Galra Keith is way funnier than regular Keith." I turn to look at Hunk in confusion. Maybe it was just me not believing that Keith said something funny in front of others for once, but he did. His comment was funny, but my mind was still trying to process if this was really Keith.

"Okay, we need to find a way around the stomach acid," Keith says as he looks up the membrane wall. All of a sudden, strange creatures started to enter into the stomach through different holes.

"What are these things?" Keith asked as we were all staring in wonder. For some reason, I remember seeing these creatures somewhere before. I couldn't put a finger down on it to where I saw them.

"Uh, I don't know. Maybe they're bacteria?" Hunk guesses as the small jellyfish-like creatures floated towards him. They made these squeaking sound as they did. Two landed on Hunk's helmet, then a few more followed, "Wait, they seem friendly. Maybe they're good bacteria."