Escape (Keith X OC)

Chapter 7

Hey, guys, just wanted to finally put an Author's
Note in here saying thank you for reading. It makes me happy knowing some people are enjoying the story so far and thank y'all for giving votes. Feel free to comment, I look forward to it!
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      Tera stopped walking and turned around to face Keith, who ended up walking into her because of his tangled thoughts. Keith fell over, catching himself almost in a push-up position on the floor while trapping Tera underneath him, their noses nearly touching.

She winced, "Ow, you're hurting me." Keith, with his eyes wide open and face burning up, looked over to his left hand which was supporting his weight and lifted it off of Tera's wrist.

She sighed, "Yeah, it still hurts. It's definitely going to leave a bruise." She scrunched her face, her whole head and back was throbbing because of the collision. Not only that, but she also had gotten the wind knocked out of herself.

Keith, after taking a moment to realize his mistake, finally apologized, "Oh my-  I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to do this and I just- I'm really sorry! I should get up now."

She sat up while rubbing her head, "No, it's fine. What were you doing or thinking about just then?" Tera wanted a good explanation for the reason she was in sudden pain and would probably be waking up tomorrow morning with a fresh bruise.

Keith grabbed Tera's arm to lift her up to her feet, which he did with ease since she was so petite, a common Peonian trait.

     He didn't know how to answer her, so he decided to just ignore the question, "I feel like an idiot. Can you walk?"

      She dusted off her hair, "Yeah, I can walk. You hurt my wrist, not my legs." Her words weren't meant to hurt him, but they did. All Keith wanted to do was protect her and he was the one who ended up hurting her. He felt guilty for the whole thing, like he failed his own mission.

      Tera noticed his sulking, "Hey, don't beat yourself up about this. It's not a big deal, it was an accident."

He wanted to shout out, 'But it is a big deal to me! You are a huge deal to me! I don't know why, but I'm literally falling for you now!'

Of course, he didn't tell her that. Instead Keith said, "I'm not. Let's just focus on the main mission, alright?" His tone made it seem like he was angry or annoyed. Tera rubbed her shoulder and followed Keith to the end of the cave's tunnel.

"This is it, I guess," he said as he was about to pick up the stone, but decided to switch it out with another object incase of a trap. Keith didn't want to risk himself or especially Tera to be injured again.

    Keith gave Tera the jewel to hold as he sent a message to the others saying they found it. They all headed back to the Lions and the ship. As they walked, Tera noticed Keith being very quiet. He did not talk too much before, but now it was evident something was bothering him.

She decided to ask, "Is everything okay, Keith?"

He replied coldly, "Yeah, I'm fine. Now, stop asking."

    Keith was mad at himself and thought he just needed to stay away from Tera to help himself. She was walking by his side now, moping. He gave quick glances at her from the corner of his eye. 'That's it. I can't help it', he thought.

     Keith reached out his arm and pulled Tera towards him as they walked. Still, his expression looked stern but he couldn't stand to see Tera sad. He wanted to be the one for her to lean on. He was beginning to see how he wasn't one of his first priorities any more, now it was her. The girl that's like an entirely new word, universe even, in his eyes.

     They walked the whole way back like that, making Tera form a small smile on her lips. She liked it when he would act like this, caring and slightly protective. It was times like these that made her heart flutter. Tera thought it was nice of him to be the caring one. Before, all she had has Haggard and even she was not so dependent at times. But Keith, he so far has been very kind to her; apparently even when grumpy.

As they returned to their ships, they parted away from each other. Hunk came over towards them, "Wow, you guys got the Jewel again? Cool!"

    Tera laughed, "Yeah, well, it's not that hard when you can pretty much sense the jewel's trace."

Hunk was in awe, "You can do that? Aw, man, that seems amazing. I wish I could something like that, life would be so much easier. Like, if you lost something, your homework for example, you could find it instantly! Might not be finished, but you could find it!" Tera handed the jewel to Keith and walked off listening to Hunk tell all sorts of stories, mostly about his forgetfulness.