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Garrison’ roofs are all inaccessible but one, the one where the solar panels that power the entire facility are. There is a stair that brings towards a trap door to the roof. Only the maintenance men have access to it, and the stair is hidden to the eyes.
But if your name is Takashi Shirogane, you’re the best pilot around and the golden boy of the Garrison, well, people uses to close both eyes and let you have the key of the trap door, so you e can go there wherever he pleases.
To be honest, Shiro has stopped doing it since his first mission. He learned to be mature enough to respect the security measures of the base. But Keith is still a cadet, with the same unrespect of rules of younger Shiro, and the same desire to have a place where he can look at the night sky alone.
“How do you find me?” Keith asks when Shiro’s head pops out from the trap door.
Shiro grins. He jumps on the roof and crawls towards Keith, to sit down next to him. “This was my secret place once,” he says.
Keith isn’t looking at him, so Shiro leans his back better against one of the solar panel and lifts his head to the dark sky.
“When I was a child back in Japan, I used to stargaze on the roof of my grandfather’s house. The first years here… I wanted to keep back a legacy with what I was, and why I was there.”
Still no answer from Keith, but he shifts nearer.
“Even if the stars aren’t as much brighter as they were back then. Too much artificial light here.”
“Aren’t you going to ask what happened?” Keith asks, changing sudden the argument.
“Uhm?” Shiro bends his head a little. “You mean, the fact that you rocked all the mid-semester exams and got the highest scores in eight subject on ten? Because I already knew it. Besides, you didn’t punch anyone in the process too.”
A small chuckles erupts from Keith’s throat and he places a hand on his mouth to stop himself. He put his head on Shiro’s shoulders.
“I know how you felt,” Shiro continues. “I was like you. I’m still like you.”
“Yeah, sure.”
“People envied me just like they’re envying you right now. They don’t realize how many efforts we made to get there. But they will.”
“Uh-uh.” Keith presses his lips together. Then, he murmurs, “you can’t really see the stars from here. But space is different, right?”
Shiro passes an arm behind Keith’s back. “It is. You’ll see.”
“Can we wait?” Keith asks, stopping Shiro to get on his hoverbike. “Until it’s night.”
Shiro frowns, but he takes off his helmet. “We should be back before eight. Garrison’s rules.”
“I know.” Keith smirks. “But don’t tell me the Garrison’s Golden Boy can’t make an exception to the rules.”
“Okay.” Shiro crosses his arm and leans against his hoverbike, a smile on his face. “Give me a good reason for it and you have your excuse.”
“I want to show you the stars.” Keith turns his head to the sky who is turning from light blue to bright orange as the sun falls down. “Here in the desert they’re better than at the Garrison.”
“You cheated,” Shiro laughs. “How can I say not to this?”
Keith throws him an amused look and jumps on his hoverbike. He gestures at Shiro to sit down next to him.
“I trust you on this, desert boy,” Shiro jokes, as he settles down. “Did you stargaze often here?”
“Not really, not like you,” Keith replies. “But when I lived here with my Pa, it was hard to not notice the sky. It was dark yet bright, just above us. And somehow I was always lured to it.”
“I think I get it.” Shiro’s eyes looks up, where the sky is already blue and the first stars appear, small, bright fire burning on the void. “You see those stars? That line of three?”
“That’s Orion,” Keith says, with a smile. “I know that much, space nerd.”
“Okay, but you also know that the first deception of Orion is around 40.000 years ago, in a prehistoric cave in Germany? And it was also listed in a Babylonian star catalogue?”
“Like I said, space nerd.” But he’s smiling again.
“And proud of it.” Shiro grins. “And you love it, admit it.”
Keith’s eyes are firm on the sky. “I do,” he whispers. Then, louder. “Tell me more.”
With the battle they face every day, and their life on the line, it’s hard to find some moments of peace. Still, Shiro has the habit to remain alone on the ship’s bridge. When Keith is too tired to train, he remains with him. They usually stand in silence, enjoy the brief peaceful moment.
“Sorry,” Shiro says. “I’m not really useful here. I can’t recognize any of this constellations.” His gaze passes on the big glasses that show the space they’re navigating.
Keith shakes his head a little. “Have you tried to ask Coran or Allura about it? They may have some records of the constellations here, given all the altean knowledge.”
“I did,” Shiro admits, with some shame. “But they only have the ones one can see from Altea, and it doesn’t exist anymore. Besides, we’re in space moving around, so it’s impossible doing so much stargazing.”
“And we’re fighting an evil space dictator.”
“That, too.”
A long sigh erupts from Shiro’s lips. “I can’t believe I’ve always wished to go farthest than humankind had and now… be careful about your own wishes.”
“Let’s do it.” Keith grabs Shiro’s arm, and the sudden movement forces Shiro to turn his head to look at him. Keith’s eyes bright, a fire on them. “Let’s look at the starts. Let’s nominate them, as the first ones in mankind. Be the first to create new constellations.”
Shiro smiles. “It would be nice.”
“But…?”
“It’s not the time.” Since Keith is still looking at him with a little pout, he adds, “but thank you. We should do in the future.”
Keith’s lips tighten, but his gaze softness. “I’ll hold you on that.”
They don’t manage to go stargazing again, not before the end of the war on Earth.
And even then, they have to find that time for themselves, between a Shiro’s meeting in his new role as captain and a Keith’s training with the other paladins.
And even when they do it, when they take the Garrison’s hoverbikes like the old times and they race to the desert towards they old spot, there is some uneasiness in them, like they are children doing something behind their parents’ back.
They aren’t so naïve and innocent anymore.
“It’s different, isn’t it?”
Shiro turns away his eyes from the dark sky.
He sits down on the sheet they brought with them, now placed on the hard ground of the desert. At his side, Keith lies down, hands behind his head and his gaze on the sky, his eyes reflect the brightness of the stars.
“It is,” he confirms. “A little disappointing.”
“Yeah.” On Shiro’s face appears a little, sad, smile. “There was a time I was so sure I wouldn’t never see Earth again… and I dreamt of this, I dreamt of what the sky meant.”
Keith’s head moves a little to look at him. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Shiro shrugs. “I should have expected that I wouldn’t have abled to see the star like the old time, not after… everything.”
Since Keith remains silent, Shiro adds, “I’m sorry you lost this feeling following after me.”
The grip on his human arm is sudden, it makes Shiro startles a little. Keith’s face is near his own, lips press together and eyes firm.
“I will follow you everywhere,” he says. “If the price of it it’s not being able to enjoy the sky anymore, so be it.”
“I know.”
Things are different now: behind the stars visible from Earth, there are more stars, planets and aliens, a fallen Empire and a witch searching for revenge. And there is a man, once a boy looking for the star, broken and scared. And there is another man, once a boy lured by the stars, who said “as many times as it takes”.
“I’ll never regret what I did,” Keith adds.
“I know.”
Shiro’s lips are on Keith’s before he even notices it. After that, it’s like everything put into the right places. Like everything they lost and everything they faced was to bring them to that exact moment.
There’s no need to word, just lips against lips, kiss on the skin, hands brushing the hair. And there is Keith upon Shiro, cheeks red, shining eyes, mouth slight open in a half smile as he breathes hard. His hand his on Shiro’s white hand, and Shiro is slowly undresses him.
“You can’t see the stars from here,” Keith says, as he drops his head just a little, a small chuckles erupts from his throat.
“No.” Shiro uses to fingers to lift Keith’s head again, and he kisses him, and then he looks straight into Keith’s eyes. “I can see the stars from here just fine.”
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