A New Start - Klance

Veronica's Secret & "Only If You Want To."

I'm tried of writing this, Have Fun Reading.

Keith woke with a sudden jerk, and looked out the window. It was still dark, so he checked his phone to see what time it was. He turned on the bright screen, to see it was 1:37. He slipped out from under Lance, and walked out of the room. Down the hall, there was a light from the kitchen. Keith just realized that their light was off in their room. Someone must have turned it off. Keith walked into the kitchen, to find Veronica eating chocolate.

She stopped suddenly, "Well, looks like I've been caught." Keith laughed, and walked beside her. "Want some?" She held up some chocolate.

"No, I can't. I'm lactose intolerant, but if you have coffee, I'll take that." Veronica nodded and started pouring some already made coffee. "Why are you up this late?" Keith asked, taking the cup of coffee.

Veronica looked down at the cup in her hands. "I have nightmares, like you and Lance." She sighed, and took a sip of her coffee.

"I'm sorry." Keith looked at her, she seemed upset with herself. "There's no reason to be ashamed."

"I know, but . . ." her voice died away, and she took another sip. Keith put a hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort her. "It was hard on my parents, and I don't want to put them through that again."

"What do you mean?" Keith asked, was she leaving? Or worse, was Lance leaving?

"The Garrison wants me to go on a rebuilding mission. Help restart a base in China and run it for a year." She paused, taking a sip. "They asked me yesterday, and I need to make a decision by tomorrow."

Keith did know what to say. "You should tell Lance, he'll know what to do. He helped me make some tough decisions when we were in space." He wished he had a family like this, and didn't want to break up theirs.

"You're really easy to talk to, Keith. Thank you for helping me." Veronica smiled at Keith, then ate a large chunk of chocolate.

"Are you two having a coffee & chocolate party without me?" Lance was in the doorway, rubbing sleep out of his eyes with his sleeve. "That's not fair."

"Then get in here and have some coffee." Veronica threw Lance a large bar of chocolate. She started pouring another cup of coffee, and looked at Keith. "Should I tell him now?" She whispered to Keith, and he nodded.

"The sooner, the better."

She looked over to her brother, and bite her lip. "Lance I need to tell you something."

She started her story, and Lance listened. He drank only when Veronica stopped, and his eyes never left hers. It was a long 5 minutes of explaining, and an even longer time of silence.

Lance sighed, and put a hand to his head. "Veronica, thank you for telling me. I just wish you told me earlier."

"Do you have any advice for me?" Veronica was now sitting on the bar stool, her head in her hands.

"You should do it." Lance made it wound to easy.

"What? Just like that." Veronica's head shot up, and stared at Lance.

"Well, it's one year." Veronica glared at Lance. "But I'm only one vote." Lance looked over to Keith, "Keith, can you weigh in?"

Keith paused, and looked at glaring Veronica. He swallowed, hard, and started, "Well, I think-"

"You're just going to agree with Lance because you're dating him!" Veronica yield at the two, and Lance shushed her. "Keith-"

"Veronica!" Keith grabbed her by her shoulders and shook her. "Wake up! Some things you need to do. I learned that with Shiro leaving, and your brother helping me through it. He pushed me to do something I needed to do." Keith rubbed Veronica's shoulders and she took a deep breath.