Us Again (Jaith)

Chapter Two: Footing

"though not everyone sees, we've got this crazy chemistry between us"                                            

(for him. (feat. Allday), Troye Sivan)

Keith was lost in thought as he and the team were led through the seemingly never ending hallways of the garrison main compound. They were getting right to work it seemed. Keith hardly noticed when they had finally stopped but then Commander Iverson began to speak,

"This is going to be the tedious part. Now that you all have returned it is a necessary protocol that you all go through debriefing. Myself and Captain Griffin here will be sitting in."

"Seriously, just when I thought this couldn't get any worse", Keith thought to himself. He's gone through plenty of military debriefs before and yes, they are pretty awful but the idea of Griffin sitting in on it made it seem that much more horrible.

One by one the paladins were taken into the private debriefing room. None of the sessions seemed to take very long, given that they were covering around 2 years of events. Keith tried to push it off to that very last moment but to his dismay, it was now his turn. Hesitantly, Keith entered the room and sat at the table across from Iverson and Griffin.

"Start at the beginning. Be prepared to be stopped if we have any questions,' Griffin said, not looking up from whatever he was writing.

"Well. . ." And Keith spoke. He was sure he was rambling. He started all the way from when he first found clues to the blue lion. The only reason he had been digging around in the sand was because he needed a distraction. From what you ask? Well, from curtain break up you see. Though he didn't deem it necessary to mention that part in the briefing, he and James had broken up a mere week and three days before Keith's life was turned upside down. Not like Keith was counting of course. A week and three days before Shiro crash-landed back on Earth. A week and three days before Keith met Pidge, Lance, and Hunk. A week and three days before they hand found the blue lion. A week and three days before Keith was whisked away into space, before he disappeared. He wasn't sure of all he had said but he came to a spot where he felt he was finished. Iverson was subtly intrigued, while Griffin's face was difficult to read. It wasn't unreadable like before, however. They sat in silence as Keith stared. Keith had never really been good at picking up social cues but in the time that he knew him (really knew him that is) Keith had become quite skilled at decoding James Griffin's facial expressions. The ability came back to him with ease, like the past two years hadn't happened. James looked shocked and confused but also relieved at the same time? Like someone told him the love of his life had been brutally murdered and then went "JK!" kind of relieved. Keith didn't know how long he had been staring but it was long enough for James' face to morph into more of an uncomfortable expression.

"Shit." Keith thought to himself.

"Thank you, Paladin Kogane. Though I'm sure you and Captain Griffin would love to catch up, being old classmates and such, we do have a war to fight and we need to get straight to work," Iverson broke the silence, definitely noticing the tension between the two. He got up to lead the pair into the mission control room, where the rest of the team was sent after their debriefs.

Keith finally averted his eyes, fighting to keep the pink from his cheeks. "Shit," he repeated to himself.

Keith could hardly pay attention to whatever mission they were planning. He couldn't seem to get the look on James' face out of his head.

"What does he have to be relieved about? Does knowing I was in space all this time give him closure or something? Wait! Why would he care? WAIT! Why do YOU care? Dammit, Keith he's your ex, get over this! It doesn't matter to him so it shouldn't matter to you! But it does matter! WHY DOES IT MATTER?!?!," Keith was officially spiraling. Something did eventually pull him from his thoughts.