Handcuffs {Pidge X Allura}{Police AU}

Bar Break

Alright, maybe Allura's initial assumption had been wrong. 

Maybe she wouldn't be okay.

It had been two weeks since Allura started searching, and since then, she had gotten approximately 12 hours of sleep in total. 

Allura had visited all of the locations three times over, except two, which she needed special permission from the private owners to visit. All visits, of course, had been fruitless.

Hunk's stress hadn't gotten better, of course. His stress had been mounting higher and higher. He was never present at group gatherings anymore, wanting to spend every minute with his girlfriend, Shay. She was one of the only people who could filter out every spec of anxiety and self-doubt, even if their friend group was pretty good at doing that as well.

The only reason that Allura had been able to keep awake was due to the ridiculous amount of caffeine and sugar she crammed into her body. She would only sleep for an hour at a time, when a sugar crash would forcefully shut her body down. 

Over the weeks, Allura had attempted to learn more about her target. Unfortunately, most of the information had been deleted. All the officer had been able to scrape together was that Katie Holt was twenty-two, had a degree in computer science, and had a similar profile and look to the brother that had gone missing, Matt Holt.

It was beginning to drive her a little crazy.

And people were starting to notice.

Keith, another officer, was also one of Allura's good friends. He was more of a run-around-on-my-motor-bike,chase-the-bad-guys kinda cop. Staying on one case for more than a week already left him puzzled. Let alone the obsession that his female friend had been doting over this particular case with.

"Hey, 'llura?" The raven-haired man said. The air quite contradicted his skin, which obviously showed heavy hints of Asian decent, bringing out the violent eyes the man sported. The girls had been swooning over Keith for months after he first showed up to his job. Y'know, until they figured out he was gay. 

"Hmm?" Allura said, humming to let him know she was listening. 

"Don't you this is a bit... I don't know... unhealthy?" "What would be unhealthy?" She ended that sentence with a snap of her teeth, a dangerous warning that let Keith know she knew perfectly well what he was referring to. Not that Keith was ever one to back down.

"This case... you're a bit... too tied into it." He started fiddling with the Texas pride patch on his police vest, knowing perfectly well that he was entering dangerous territory.

Allura narrowed her eyes at him. "Well, no, not necessarily. This is a very interesting case and I, personally, like to dedicate my time to cases and solve larger mysteries."

Keith squinted right back. "Look, I get you like letting people's hearts be a rest and help the bigger community. Blah blah blah. But you can't help others if you're not in a safe state yourself. I'm worried about you, Allura. This isn't the first time you've done this and it's probably not going to be the last. Just give yourself this one night and I'll let you rest easy for a month."

Allura's eyes widened, both at Keith's words and the fact her friend came in for a hug, a rare sign of affection from her friend. 

As an instinct, she hugged back, taking advantage of the unusual moment. After a couple of minutes, she realized that now was the perfect moment to break the tension. 

"Get away, knucklehead! You smell like Lance's face mask." Keith pulled back, mock offense and hurt plastered all over his face. 

"So WHAT if he threw a chunk at me because I ate the rest of the garlic knots? I tried my best to wash it out of my hair. And skin."