One More Night || kidge au

Damaged

Keith had never felt more regret than the moment she walked out that door. No, more like, the moment she had given his key back. He honestly hadn't been expecting it. He didn't have the heart or the strength to even go after her. And now, after having washed up and satisfied his initial hunger, he headed to bed.

There, he stared at the key where he had set it on the nightstand. He had wanted to talk to her about their relationship and try to understand and maybe even "fix" it. It was risky when she was with someone else, but he wanted clarification. He wanted to see if she would fumble and become as flustered as she did that night when she had asked—

He closed his eyes, wishing the burning and aching in his chest would stop. Turning in bed, he couldn't help putting on repeat her words when she stood at the doorway, looking measurably better and yet, still frail and pale that he wondered if she had truly gotten any better. No, she wasn't frail, by any means, but the fact she had a sickness that made her that weak in the first place made him remember that Pidge was still a girl. Her eyes when she was leaving was enough to leave a burn. Mutually shocked and hurt that she had to do what she did, and what's more, the resigned look on her face.

He had been the one to put that on her face.

Grunting in displeasure and wanting this pain to end, he rolled around in bed to try and find a comfortable position. He tossed and turned for a good hour or so before he gave up, sighing loudly in aggravation and throwing the covers off to make his way to the living room. However, just before leaving the bedroom, he turned his head to the nightstand where a certain hair clip still sat neatly in the drawer.

She's taken, he thought as he made his way over to it. She was hurt; she was here to talk about something, but I didn't listen. The thoughts ran even as his fingers scooped the delicate item into his hands. He sat heavily, twirling the hair clip between his fingers while the faint lighting from outside illuminated the flowers. Unlike the last time when he had held it in his hand, no memories from that night came to mind and instead, only the ones he remembered purposefully began to appear in the surface of his mind.

The moment he saw her and realized it was Pidge that night. When she turned to face him and smiled like she had not a care in the world. When he had nerves despite the influence of alcohol and leaned forward to ask her to dance moments before she said yes. And then when they were on the dance floor and suspicious men were eyeing her like a prize to be won rather than treated with respect. Rather than let them go anywhere near Pidge, he took the place of her protector and wrapped his arms around her to become aware that she's a slender, fully fledged girl.

And then he realized he was attracted.

Lifting the hair clip, he mused that her normally sporty and tomboyish attire had hidden her feminine charm that he normally was unfazed by with any other girl. That night, he vaguely remembered that he had simply asked if she was feeling alright. Her skin was flushed and she was constantly grinning from ear to ear with giggles in his ear that made his heart race.

And then she kissed him and it was if all of the restraints he didn't know he even had were off.

Keith sighed, twirling the hair clip again and flopped back onto his back to stare at the ceiling. He closed his eyes again, remembering how their first one was an awkward one and something he had to teach her how to kiss without the banging of their teeth. It was a delight to figure out that he had been her first just from how awkward her touch was and from her touch alone. Her small frame leaned into him and he drank every touch and every heavy sigh in.

What he hated was that he couldn't remember what went passed the moment they had entered his apartment. Vaguely, he recalled idle conversations and gaming with some light drinking sprinkled in between rounds. But he had recalled how she had asked for a good night kiss and he gave her one on her forehead. And then he had made the mistake of lowering his head to nearly rest his forehead against hers. Her fingers, soft and slim, touched his cheeks and then those kisses that came after were as natural as it was to breathe.