A Beginning, A Middle, An End

Chapter 1 - Wonderstruck

A//N: If you follow my main blog  on tumblr then you'll know that a few months ago I started a ficlet series with this exact title. A week or so ago I was re-reading what I had written and decided that instead of writing the next part it would be best to completely rewrite it, as I wasn't happy with what I had written previously. This is obviously that rewrite and rather than continuing with the whole ficlet series thing I've decided to turn this into a multichapter fic instead. Enjoy! :) (Oh and this does start pre-kerberos btw) 

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*beep beep* *beep beep* *beep beep*

"Keith! Turn off your alarm!" yelled Keith's roommate.

Groggily, Keith reached over and turned it off.

"God I can't wait until I can get a new roommate." his roommate muttered.

Once he had rubbed the sleep from his eyes Keith glanced over at the now silent clock. It was five o'clock, time for his very early training session. He sat up and stretched. Every morning since he'd gotten into the Galaxy Garrison Keith had got up extra early so he could have a few hours before the other cadets. That, and he knew one of another cadet that got up around this time to do the same exact thing.

As he got up he made sure to be quiet as he quickly made his way to the bathroom. He didn't want to anger his roommate anymore than he already had.

Now fully dressed Keith silently made his way to the door, quietly opened it, now outside he carefully closed it so it didn't make too much sound. Now that it was shut Keith took off towards the training room.

The cadet that would already be in the training room was called Takashi Shirogane, however most people just called him Shiro. He'd been in the Galaxy Garrison a year longer than Keith and was the Garrison's best pilot in training.

He thought to when he saw Shiro for the first time. His first simulation class had ended and he'd just exited the simulator when he saw Shiro on the other side of the room, talking to the class instructor. At first he hadn't known who he was at all until he'd rejoined his classmates and heard them say his name. Now knowing his name, Keith had looked back at him. It was at that moment their eyes met briefly. Since then, when he wasn't focusing on something, his mind would always drift back to it. Something had happened during that moment. He was still unsure what. Keith figured that he'd find out sometime in the future.

As he approached the training room Keith heard the familiar muffled sounds of Shiro's boxing. He entered the room silently and, since the sun hadn't fully risen yet, he stayed in the shadows so he wasn't seen. Even though this would most definitely be the only time he'd see Shiro for the day Keith would move onto the simulator in a couple of minutes. One of his instructors believed in visual learning and so had asked, and even encouraged, his class to observe those training to see if there was anything new they could learn. More often or not, during these early morning sessions, Shiro would indeed show something new, but that was only if Keith was early enough. After a couple of minutes it was clear that he hadn't been. As a result he moved onto the simulator.

Before he entered it Keith had already had a good feeling about this morning's session. Today would, hopefully, be the day he beat the simulators high score. He knew that by doing so he'd be drawing severely unwanted attention by basically everyone in the Garrison, but he wasn't about to let that hold him back.

Keith was coming to the end of his second go in the simulator. His first go had broken his last high score, but had been nowhere close to the main one. Nervous, he watched as the scoreboard rankings began to appear on the screen in front of him. Because of the score he had gotten last time Keith had expected to get one that was either the same or slightly lower. He was extremely surprised when it revealed that he'd actually beaten the main highscore.

He looked at it in disbelief. He'd done it. He had actually done the impossible. He had beaten the highscore. As proud as he was for achieving this Keith had just caught a glance at the time that sat at the top of the scoreboard. It was ten to eight. The entire Garrison would be awake now. The cadets would be getting ready for their various classes and the instructors would be getting ready of what they would be teaching their classes, through the day. It wouldn't be long before the entire Garrison heard of this.

At this realisation Keith began to feel a little uneasy and could tell that the way his heart was now beating wasn't to do with the leftover adrenaline he still had in his system. The thought of an attack quickly came to his mind and deciding against going through one he exited the simulator and made a beeline for his dorm.

The good thing about getting up before everyone else was that Keith had learnt where all the shortcuts to his dorm were. On his way there he could feel himself begin to calm down. He began to slow down once he was a couple of corridors away from his dorm.

A couple minutes or so later and he was finally walking down the corridor where his dorm was. He was roughly ten steps away from his dorm when he heard someone speak.

"So you're the one who beat my high score, huh?"

Keith spun round to see Shiro, leaning against the wall with a cocky smile written across his face.

"What of it?" Keith asked.

Shiro shook his head. "Nothing, I'm just... impressed."

"Impressed?" Keith couldn't believe it. How could somebody like Shiro be impressed with a nobody like him?

"Yeah. I was wondering, you doing anything?"

"I was just going to take a shower and stay in my dorm for the rest of the day. Why?" He regretted asking why the second he said it. As much as he had dreamed and hoped something like this Keith hadn't been prepared for it and was beginning to feel anxious, as well as slightly stressed.

"Well I wanted to get to know the pilot who managed to do the impossible. See you in the cafeteria in fifteen minutes?"

"Sure, why not?" As stressed as he currently was, Keith wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to hang out with Shiro. This was basically one of his dreams come true since the day they'd laid eyes on one another.

"I'll see you there then." With that Shiro pushed away from the wall and began to head back down the hallway.

Once Keith was in his dorm he quickly closed his door and leant against it. His heart was racing. He hadn't been mentally prepared for that conversation so it had taken a lot out of him.

Even with the way Keith was currently feeling there wasn't anyway that he wasn't going to go meet up with Shiro.

All Keith had to do was quickly shower and while he was doing that he'd have time to mentally prepare himself for the rest of the day.

Fifteen minutes later and he was now standing in front of the cafeteria doors. Rather than feeling stressed and anxious he now felt excited. A small smile made its way across his face. Keith had a feeling that once he walked through those doors something a helluva lot bigger than beating a simulator highscore would happen sometime in the future.

Taking a deep breath Keith pushed those doors open and made his way inside the cafeteria. He was definitely ready for whatever that thing was.