How Far I've Come (Keith x Reader)

≬ The Nix Mission » Chapter Five ≬

Deep breath in. Deep breath out.

The day had finally arrived, the day you had deeply dreaded and longed for, dreamed of nightly and feared daily.

It was launch day.

The first day of your month-long (estimated) journey to Nix was to occur in less than half an hour. The mission was simple; travel to Nix, drill for samples, store them safely, travel home. However, no matter the number of times you explained that to Keith, he still got put down about it.

In the past few days since the party, he had been unusually clingy. It was nice of him to not ignore you after the whole James Griffin thing, when he chose walking alongside you and never leaving your side. You hadn't even seen him go to the bathroom while he was with you, and we're talking hours on end with nothing but talking, eating and sleeping...

You waved anxiously to the strangers far, far away in the safety stands, butterflies starting to gang up on you and take over your stomach. You were standing on a tall mount that lead into the jet, but none of the crew members were allowed to enter the ship while it went through a final inspection. Students were cheering and waving at their friends in the crew, and crew members were getting off of the mount to give their proud family members humble goodbyes.

The remembrance of not having a family to wish you luck made your heart sink, but you sighed and smiled it off. You were going to space, after all! Far, far into space! And you were going to write! Your dream!

Over all of your hopes for a safe mission, you had hoped most of all that Keith would come to watch you take off. Though, you knew very well that this kind of thing had scarred him since the Kerberos Mission. Even if you were his best friend, he had lost a brother.

Thus being said, you had half-heartedly assumed he wouldn't show up. He stayed silent the one time you asked him if he would, eventually changing the subject to the next homework question.

Suddenly, your train of thought was then cut clean off by a security guard booming at what seemed to be a trespasser, trying to get to the mount with ill intent.

"Are you of direct relation to the pilot of this mission?"

"No, but-"

"Then beat it kid, I cannot allow you to- HEY-!"

You looked down from the mount to see a speed-demon Keith Kogane jumping over the security fence and darting towards the area where families were meeting their space travelers. A conflicted lump caught in your throat on sight.

Why did he come?

What would he tell you now that he couldn't of told you when he was clinging to you like a paper clip for the past 48 hours?

...Screw it.

You speedily walked to the ladder on the side of the mount and clambered down, meeting him at the dirt-base ground. He looked genuinely depressed, and who could blame him? He sacrificed pride to be here. The last time he stood on this ground, it was before his last family member left and never returned.

For weeks on end, Keith had kept on asking you not to go, and over time, it went from random joking to begging. It baffled him that the Garrison would send anyone remotely close to Pluto after what happened on Kerberos, and it added sadness to the mix every time he remembered you were the anyone.

You two had grown insanely close in a decent amount of time, where you wouldn't even blush when he would lean on you or fall asleep in your dorm during late-night study sessions. You never knew where your impeccable strength you used to carry him to your sofa with came from, but you used it. Sharing food and entering dorms was now a thoughtless process for both of you.