Fly Away From Your Troubles (Klance AU)

11- Crimson Flowers

(Keith's POV)

I was at work a few days later, after Shiro and I had returned from Arizona the day before. The shop was fairly quiet today, with only a few customers since I had arrived at 10:00. It was now 1:15. I was finishing up some sketches of the desert when my phone buzzed, and it said I had a text from Pidge. It read: Meet me at the café in 15 minutes. That was it. I was confused, but complied anyways.

"Hey, Romelle, can you watch the shop for a little? Pidge wants me to meet her at the café. I'm not sure why, but it shouldn't take too long," I told Romelle, who was in the front of the shop watering a plant we had in the window.

"Yeah, that's fine," She said, turning towards me, "But then that's two shifts that you owe me."

"Ok. Deal," I responded as I put on my scarf opened the door to leave. "Thanks!"

There was still snow on the ground from Christmas, and it was also supposed to snow again sometime today. I walked to my motorcycle while thinking about what Pidge could possibly want to meet me for. The ride to the café was short; it was only a few blocks away. As I entered I saw Pidge sitting at one of the tables, Lance next to her. He was wearing a grey-purple sweater, and had a fluffy grey scarf around his neck. Slung over his back was a guitar. I wonder why he had that.

"Keith, hey!" Lance exclaimed when I walked over to their table, "I haven't seen you since you got back."

"Hey, Lance," I said, smiling, but then turned to Pidge. "Pidge... why exactly did you tell me to come here? I was working; now I owe Romelle another shift."

"I brought you two here because I need your help with something. Now come on," She said, standing up and waving a hand for us to follow her. She brought us to a car, that I think was Matt's, and told us to get inside. She then drove us to her house. I only grew more confused when she lead us to their backyard, but then continued to lead us behind it, through I secret path I hadn't known was there. That path took us to a clearing. I stopped, and looked around to figure out where we were. There were lots of trees surrounding the clearing, they didn't have any leaves of course, and were covered with snow. There was a short stone wall in the back of the clearing; and above that some white Christmas lights hung from the trees. There was also a small shed in one corner, and a picnic blanket on the ground by the wall. But, the most noticeable thing in the clearing were these plants that held large, crimson red flowers. The area was full of them. As we entered the clearing, I saw Lance brush his hand against one of the flowers; he also looked confused. Pidge was walking towards the shed, so we followed her.

"What is this place?" I asked. I had been to Pidge's house many times, and never did she show us this.

"This place is were I keep all of my projects that I don't want Matt or my family to mess with." Pidge opened the shed, and inside were various robots, computers, and other technology that wasn't completed. The inside of the shed looked a lot bigger than the outside; there were a lot of things in there. Pidge picked up a pyramid-looking thing, that had a triangle camera in the front and various designs on each side. Lance and I continued to look at everything that was in there; there were just so many projects. Then, we heard something move, and saw two ears poke up from a box on a high shelf. I looked at Lance, confused. He was clearly as confused as I was when those two ears turned out to be a cat, that climbed out of the box and jumped down to the ground. Behind it, two more cats popped up from the shelf, and followed Pidge out to the area by the stone wall. Pidge sat on the wall; two of the cats jumped up on it as well.

"Where did these three cats come from?!" Lance asked Pidge, one of them rubbing his leg.

"Well, I'm actually not sure," Pidge responded, "They just showed up one day. Since it's too cold outside for them, I've been letting them live in the shed until I figure out who owns them." One cat was all black, with bright yellow eyes. The other one on the wall was entirely brown, and had a bow around its neck. The one following Lance was light grey, and had darker grey stripes along its back and head.