Blackout (A Keith Fanfiction)

Chapter 7

Just a heads up, I've made some very minor changes in the previous chapters. It's really nothing important. I just changed Valerie's hair color.

"This particular mall is crawling with Galra soldiers and to ensure the safety of the others in the mall, we can't be engaging in battle with the Galra unless absolutely necessary..." Allura explains. "So Valerie and Keith, you'll go."

Allura and Pidge exchange glances, meaning to be discrete, but not really doing a great job. What did Pidge say to her...? "Any... particular reason?"

"I have something else for the others to do," Allura makes more eye contact with Pidge than me.

"Alright... so we'll take a pod, rather than my lion," Keith nods.

"Right," Allura confirms. "Since you won't have your helmets to communicate with, I'll give you this," she hands me a small, white object with a blue button in the middle. "In the hopefully unlikely case that you do find yourself in a fight and need help, press the button. Also stay together at all times."

"I have some disguises for you both!" Coran announces.

"Coran, the last time you gave us disguises to blend in-" Keith recalls.

Coran cuts him off, though, "No, no. These are actually good disguises. This mall has a very Earth-like style, so you're in luck!" He thinks for a moment, "Not that you dress weirdly for Earthlings... you kind of just look... a bit too much like you're ready to punch someone, y'know... and-"

"I'm sure whatever you've picked out will be just fine. Thank you, Coran," I stop his ranting.

 "Right!" He leaves the room, but he's back in a flash, with a pile of new clothes for each of us. "Now go change quickly!"

Before changing I take a look at myself in the mirror. Do I really look like I'm ready to punch someone...? The more I look and think about it, my black tank top tucked into my green army pants, that are tucked into my leather combat boots so kinda make me look like a drill sergeant. And I guess my dark hair and eyes don't really help me look any friendlier.

The change of clothes Coran gave me is compromised of white jeans, a light gray v neck, and black high tops. When I put it on, I'm quite impressed with how Coran's selection actually worked.

When we meet back with the others, Lance nods his head in approval, "Wow, Coran... I'm impressed. Valerie doesn't look like a military officer and you almost managed to conceal Keith's mullet, which is impossible. You can see that thing from a mile away with or without the-"

"Lance," Shiro warns him.

They walk us to the pod bay, where we say our goodbyes and good lucks. Shiro puts his hand on my shoulder, looking between me and Keith, "Remember, take your time and look casual. You're just hanging out at the mall and looking around." He looks at Keith with a joking, playful smirk, "Don't take too long, though. I want her home by 10."

I internally face palm and hope that my cheeks aren't as red as they feel. Shiro... why...?

"What's the plan?" Keith asks.

"Land in the back, but not away from everything. We'll go in and wonder for a bit before going to that tech store Coran described. Don't engage and try to blend in. If we have to fight... you have your knife, right?" I summarize.

"Yeah... you don't have anything, do you?" Keith realizes.

"It'll be fine," I brush it off. I point to an area of the parking lot, "Over there. There's a spot right- Why didn't you park right there?"

"I wanna get closer," Keith answers.

"There are no spots up here, that's why I said to park over there," I argue.

"There's a spot right here," Keith approaches it.

"That's not a spot," I tell him.

"Yes, it is, there's a-" he stops when he sees the sign. "No parking sign..." he mutters under his breath. "I'll loop around..."

"If you had just parked where I told you..." I give him an I-told-you-so kind of tone.

"Shuddup..." he rolls his eyes as I smirk complacently.

I could've mistaken the aliens walking around the mall as human, just based off the Earth-like fashion. Virtually everything else about them give it away. Regardless of fashion, the collection of aliens is extremely diverse, almost so that Keith and I don't even slightly stick out. That's not something we can disguise, though. Humans are pretty rare out here.

Despite the diversity, the place definitely is crawling with Galra soldiers. They don't bother the people, though. Not like I've seen on other planets. They aren't controlling, enslaving, or even involving themselves much with the others. They're kind of just watching over everyone, which raises a strong sense of unease, suspicion, and a bit of panic. 

"Relax... Panicking is just gonna draw attention to us," Keith gently squeezes my shoulder.

"Keith, they're everywhere..." I force and even tone as I glance around.

"Just don't look at them. Pretend they're not even there," he advises. Upon noticing how I'm still tensed up, Keith turns me so I'm only looking at him, "Hey. it'll be fine. Just... look at me and try to calm down." It's pretty obvious he's not very experienced or comfortable trying to reassure people, but I still look up at him.

My eyes meet his uniquely colored ones. How do you even describe them? Violet, but not too purple... Gray, but not too dark and colorless... Really looking at them, you can make out the slightest dark blue tinge, but it's barely there.

I was too caught up in figuring out his eyes, that I hardly registered how his hands moved from my arms to my hands. I probably wouldn't have noticed at all if I didn't feel a sort of spark shoot back up my arms and into my chest, where that weird, warm feeling spread again.

Valerie, this is not the time to be trying to pick apart feelings. You have amnesia. One thing at a time.

With that thought, I trying to pull that feeling away, by letting go of Keith's hands and breaking eye contact, "How about we stop at that shop, over there?"

Word Count: 1031

Ooh! Oooh! Oooooooh! Just when things start getting complicated a stack of bricks is dumped into the equation. Bricks that may or may not have feelings written all over them. Where is this metaphor going? Can I even consider it a metaphor? Whatever.
I mean, I guess this isn't much of a surprise since the title literally says it's a Keith x OC... so y'all should know generally what's gonna happen, BUT WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW IS MY OTHER PLANS! Sorry, I'm ranting... I'm just really excited to get to certain parts of the story!

All seriousness, though, what did y'all think? I'd love to hear any thoughts and comments you have, whether it's feedback, reactions, theories, or just witty commentary.

Thanks for reading!