Fly Away From Your Troubles (Klance AU)

6- Mysteries

Monster. I was a monster. Of course you're a monster to them, my subconscious told me. I tried to push away those thoughts, but it didn't help.

"Woah, Keith, do you see this?! They're saying the creature was seen in Fitler Square this afternoon! Isn't that where you were?" Shiro said suddenly.

"Yeah, that was. But I... I didn't see anything there," I said, trying to act like I was calm, when internally I was freaking out. It was hard to focus throughout the whole movie, and I had a hard time falling asleep that night. I kept waking up with the same nightmare; that I was found and captured, and everyone I cared about left me for the monster I was.

- - -

The next morning I had trouble waking up, and it didn't help much that I had to wake up early to go to work. Shiro must have noticed that something was off; when I walked into the kitchen he asked me if I was okay.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bit tired," I told him as I made myself coffee. Shiro looked at me with a worried look.

"Ok. Do you need me to drive you to work or can you walk? Since your motorcycle is still left where you crashed it," He said, the last part a bit quieter than the rest. I now remembered that Renegade—that was the name of my motorcycle—was still parked in the square, and hoped that no one had stolen her.

"No, I think I'm fine walking," I told him, then remembered something. "Hey, Shiro, does Allura know why I wasn't at work yesterday?"

"I told her that you weren't able to go, yes. But she doesn't know that you crashed, so she might be confused as to why you're covered in scratches," Shiro said. Then he added, "Oh and also, she told me that Romelle was working an extra shift since you were gone yesterday. So Romelle might be a bit angry at you when you get there..."

"That's okay, I've had to face her wrath before. I'll survive," I responded. Shiro smiled, then glanced at the clock and reminded me that I should be leaving, or else I'd be late.

"Oh, right. Thanks, Shiro!" I said as I grabbed my coat and ran out of the house. Shiro shouted something, but I was already running down the stairs.

Since I didn't have Renegade, the trip would take a little longer, but still no more than ten minutes. Soon I reached the right street, and walked up to the white brick building with a red sign that read Blick Art Materials. I entered the shop, and saw Romelle at the Copic marker stand, stocking it for the day. She looked over at me as I walked in.

"Hey, Romelle," I said, "Sorry I wasn't able to make it yesterday. I sort of... crashed..." She raised an eyebrow.

"Seriously, Keith, you crashed your motorcycle? I thought you were good at driving that thing," she responded, smiling so I knew she was joking. "But seriously, you could have at least called, I had to work extra yesterday because you weren't here."

"Sorry about that. Anytime you need to get out of work, I'll work an extra shift for you then," I responded. She smiled.

"Deal." I picked up my name tag, which just read "Keith" and had a red heart drawn on it—that was Romelle's doing. I flipped the sign on the door to "open," and walked behind the desk. I noticed a box underneath it that was filled with Christmas decorations. Romelle must have noticed my confused look, because she walked over and picked up the box.

"Oh, right, you weren't here yesterday. Allura wanted us to decorate the store since Christmas is coming up soon," she told me. "We didn't have any decorations, so I went out and bought some!"

I looked through the box. I actually enjoyed decorating for Christmas. It was really one of the only parts I liked about it, aside from being off of school. I wasn't going to tell anyone, but I really hated Christmas all together. Ever since my dad died, it's just been a depressing time. I was pulled out of my thoughts when the door opened, and a customer walked in. I shoved the box under the counter as Romelle greeted them with a smile on her face.

- - -

Meanwhile, at Hunk's house...

I was confused.

It was the morning after Keith crashed, and Lance and I had slept over at Hunk's that night. The three of us were walking to a café for breakfast, when we saw it.

"Hey guys, hold on. Isn't that Keith's motorcycle?" Hunk said, pointing across the street.

"What? That can't be right. He said he crashed it, didn't he?" Lance replied. I looked over at where Hunk was pointing, and sure enough, it was Keith's motorcycle. I walked over to it, followed by Hunk and Lance. The bike didn't have a single scratch. But, why would Keith lie to us?

"He's hiding something," I whispered to myself as I looked at the vehicle.

"What do you mean?" Lance asked, having overheard me.

"Well, it's obvious. Keith told us he crashed his motorcycle, right into a window. But, now we find it parked on the street, and without a scratch. He couldn't have crashed it. He lied to us."

"Oh." Lance had a sad expression on his face, but but it disappeared after a second.

"Hey, Pidge, come look at this," Hunk told me. He was near a bush just by the entrance of the park, holding a piece of cloth that seemed to be a shirt. "Isn't this Keith's shirt?"

I walked over and Hunk showed me the shirt. It was definitely Keith's; it was a plain black shirt that had the words "I want to believe" printed on the front. What... what was Keith hiding?

"Ok, this makes no sense. This is suggesting he parked his motorcycle here, took off his shirt, threw it in a bush, and then somehow got all those cuts?" Lance said as he rubbed his head. "There's got to be another explanation... right?"

"I don't know. I'm just as confused as you are. This doesn't make any sense." I stuffed the shirt in my bag. "But, we need to find out why Keith lied to us, and what he's hiding."

A/N:
Hi! I noticed that this fic has 400+ reads! Thank you! I hope you're enjoying it! I know I've been really slow to update lately, I'll try to update quicker, but school is starting soon so that might be hard. Anyways, thanks for reading!
~Soni