we just fall where our hearts go

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Moving to a new town and transferring the kids to a different school is looking like the right choice so far, Krolia thinks.

The commute to her new job was easy, she didn’t have to cross state lines to meet up with her friends and Kosmo likes the weather. Keith and Romelle look like they were happy to go to school for once.

The new flight school she teaches in now paid a bit less than the previous one. She didn’t mind – it was still decent pay, and with all the other good things this move has brought to their family, that was a small price to pay.

Now it’s Friday afternoon and she is curled up comfortably on the couch with Kosmo, watching reruns of some old sitcom. That’s when she hears a loud banging noise from upstairs.

“You know, don’t you?!” Romelle’s voice is loud, but it sounds more scandalized than angry.

There’s a muffled answer that must have been Keith’s grumbling, followed by loud electric guitar strumming.

“Keith! No fair!” Romelle shrieks above the noise. The strumming stops abruptly and there’s feedback. Krolia smirks – Romelle must have unplugged the guitar from the amplifier. “All this time you knew!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Keith says, and it sounds like he was moving around. “I have absolutely no idea-” he cuts off into a muffled yelp.

There’s a tense beat of silence, and then Keith is shouting and Romelle is squealing.

It’s been a while since Krolia heard the sound of two pairs of feet chasing each other up and down the stairs, accompanied by laughter and teasing. It lasts for several minutes, and then silence. When she turns her head towards the stairs, she catches both her teenagers in the pillow fight version of a Mexican standoff.

“It’s over, Keith. I have the high ground!” Romelle declares dramatically, and Krolia has never been prouder.

“You’re literally on the second step from the bottom.” Keith deadpans from the hallway. “It’s not that high.”

“It’s still high ground!” Romelle says, and then she skips three more stairs higher to avoid the strawberry-shaped pillow Keith hurls at her. Romelle throws her teddy bear aside as she lets out a warcry and lunges at her brother.

“Fuck-” is all that Keith manages to yell before he is tackled to the floor.

“YEAH!” Romelle raises her arms in victory, straddling Keith’s stomach.

Keith grumbles as he lays spread eagle on the carpet. “It’s a pillow fight. You throw pillows! You’re not allowed to throw yourself !”

“That’s not a rule.” Romelle says. “I won, anyway. You’re gonna tell me the truth now!”

“No.” Keith frowns, resolute. Krolia thinks Keith could make a great actor too, if he wasn’t so intent on working backstage instead. “Never!”

Romelle starts to reach out for the fallen teddy bear and recites, “Knowledge or death, Keith!” Krolia doesn’t know where that one came from, but her daughter could sure deliver her lines.

“Alright.” Krolia finally speaks up, more amused than concerned. Kosmo withdraws from her and trots over to start licking Keith’s face. “What is this that’s worth breaking your brother’s neck for, Romelle?”

Krolia doesn’t miss Romelle’s blush, and how it’s Keith who answers with a smug smirk on his face. “Someone’s been sending Romelle love letters.”

“Poems!” Romelle corrects.

“Whatever. Poems.” Keith concedes, reaching up to scratch behind Kosmo’s ears.

Krolia raises an eyebrow at that. “Oh? My girl has an admirer?”

“They’re not signed.” Romelle says, then scowls vehemently down at her brother. “But Keith knows who it is. I bet he’s known all this time. He just won’t admit it.”

Keith shrug. “He doesn’t sign it for a reason.”

Krolia raises an eyebrow. “Why? Is he ugly?”

“Mom!” both of them cry, exasperated.

Krolia rolls her eyes, looking similarly exasperated. It’s a battle she wins because she’s the one who taught them that in the first place. “Then why all the mystery?”

Keith sighs, and tilts his head to avoid more drool from the family pet. “Do you really want to know who? Fine, I’ll tell you-”

“What?! No!” Romelle squeals as she covers her ears. “No, don’t tell me! I don’t want to know!”

Keith and Krolia look at each other helplessly, then Keith throws his hands up, at a loss. “What did you fight me for, then?!”

“I just wanted you to admit that you know! You’ve been lying to me, I keep showing you the notes and asking you if you have any clue and you kept saying you know nothing.” Romelle elaborates, looking annoyed. “I’m fine with not knowing until he’s ready. I’m not fine with you pretending like you’re not an accomplice-”

“I’m not an accomplice.” Keith interjects.

“I’ve been betrayed by my own brother.” Romelle gives him a dirty look. “You are , too. Pidge told me she caught you putting one of the letters in my locker yourself.”

Keith sighs in defeat. “Fine, yeah, whatever. I admit that I know who it is, but I won’t tell you until he does. Happy?”

Romelle considers it, then sniffs haughtily before finally getting back on her feet. “Happy.” she huffs, and picks up the fallen pillows on her way to stomp back upstairs.

Keith doesn’t get up and just lets Kosmo settle over him in the middle of the hallway.

Krolia waits until Romelle is just barely out of earshot before speaking. “So, he’s not ugly?”

Keith doesn’t miss a beat, noting that the sound of Romelle’s footfalls have stopped. “No, mom, he’s actually pretty good-looking.”

Krolia hums thoughtfully. “Oh, is he now?”

“Yeah.” Keith replies with enthusiasm. “He’s quite a catch.”

Romelle screams.

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It’s the first day of exam week, and Shiro is running on a mix of nerves and confidence borne from weeks spent studying. He is ready to show these exams who’s boss, and he definitely doesn’t need Sven tapping insistently on his shoulder to probably ask him to deliver another goddamn message to his crush.

Shiro gets the last of the books he needs from his locker and turns to give his cousin a piece of his mind.

“Sven, please, not today of all days-”

Except it’s not Sven.

Not Sven at all.

“Give me your hand.” Keith says without preamble, and Shiro is too dumbfounded to do anything else besides transfer his books to one arm so he can offer a free hand. Keith positions it palm up, then places something on it.

Shiro looks down at the item, still trying to gather his wits. “Um… Thanks for… this… paper butterfly?” he says, squinting at it. It does look like a butterfly origami, and it was pink and shiny.

“Romelle knows that I know who’s been sending her the notes.” Keith says. When Shiro’s brows furrow in alarm, he continues. “Don’t worry, I didn’t tell her who. She didn’t ask, either. But now that she knows she has a way to write back, she wants to give him something too. So…” He tilts his head meaningfully at the paper butterfly. “There’s a message inside that, just pull the wings apart a bit.”

“Oh. Okay. Got it… Uh- Sven-… Sven will be over the moon, I’m sure of it.” Shiro finally says, nodding in understanding as he tucks the origami safely on his bag’s empty side pocket. Of course. It was for Sven, from Romelle. Of course it is. There was no way Keith was going to just give Shiro a cute origami butterfly out of the blue-

But Keith cuts through his thoughts and places several brightly-colored items on top of Shiro’s stack of books. “These are for you.”

There are five, Shiro counts, in different colors. More origami. They were shaped like cat heads, with different cute cat faces scribbled on them. Shiro splutters his reply. “Keith, they’re… adorable. I-… What are they for?”

“I made them while helping Romelle figure out the butterfly.” Keith shrugs, like it’s a perfectly normal thing to just randomly give someone a bunch of cute origami cat heads. “They’re bookmarks.” he explains. “And you’re always carrying a shitload of books so I figured you can use them.”

Shiro tries not to cry. Or scream. Or melt. He can’t stop the blush, though.

“Thank you, Keith. These are wonderful. I love them.” Shiro says. I love you , he wants to say but he doesn’t, because he doesn’t want to embarrass himself just yet.

“Yeah, well. It’s nothing, really.” Keith hums as tucks his hands on his pockets and steps back. “Good luck with exams.”

Shiro smiles. “Thanks! Good luck, too.”

Keith smiles back and then disappears in the crowd of students hurrying to their classrooms, as he does.

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Shiro finds Sven with Matt before he goes to his first exam. He hands his cousin the origami butterfly, says it’s from Romelle, and instructs him to be careful because it has a message inside. Shiro and Matt share one look and turn around because they can’t watch Sven’s meltdown, nope, they won’t be subjected to that.

Matt notices the cat heads poking out of Shiro’s books and asks about them instead.

“Keith gave them to me.” Shiro marvels softly, sounding like he couldn’t quite believe it himself.

Before Matt could say anything, they hear a whimper from behind them. “Sven? You okay there, pal?”

“She loves my poems and she wishes me luck on my exams.” Sven sniffs. Matt turns to check up on him, and Sven honest-to-God clings . “M-Matthew… please take me to the hospital.”

Light leaves Matt’s eyes as he extracts the taller guy’s hand from his sleeve. “I have exams, Holgersson. Take yourself to the hospital.”

He hears a sigh and turns to see Shiro still smiling softly at the cat bookmarks.

“God.” Matt shudders. “There’s two of them now.”

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Shiro delivers another note after exam week and notes Keith’s grin when he catches sight of the red paper cat tucked in the pages of one of Shiro’s textbooks.

The next day, Keith intercepts Shiro on his way to class, smoothly tucking a folded paper penguin on his binder without so much as stopping in his steps. There were no bookmarks for Shiro this time, just a message from Romelle to Sven, but that’s alright because between their different schedules, seeing Keith around the halls in between classes was a reward in itself.

The days pass and it becomes routine, Shiro and Keith playing messengers for their cousin and sister respectively, catching the other at random times throughout the day and passing notes around in stealth.

Whenever they happen across each other in the lockers early in the morning, they stop to chat a bit. Shiro learns some things about Keith that Sven hadn’t covered when he was still gathering information about Romelle.

Keith is an incredible artist, half of his locker were sketch pads and art materials. He joined the Drama Club’s tech crew because he likes working with his hands. He couldn’t wait to build the sets and help with the costumes. Romelle’s hand-painted backpack was his birthday gift to her.

Krolia Kogane had single-handedly raised her two kids after her husband passed away years ago. She is “a major badass flight instructor and is basically superwoman”, according to Keith.

The Kogane family pet is indeed part-wolf. Kosmo is a wolfdog hybrid that Keith found sick and injured on the wild while the family was on a hiking trip. They nursed him back to health and Kosmo had grown attached to the family. Krolia had known wolfdogs were risky to have as pets, but she worked on getting a license anyway, and so Kosmo stayed.

One day, Keith makes Shiro choose between two very complicated-looking braided hairstyles he found on Pinterest, and that’s the day Shiro learns that Keith is actually the one responsible for his sister’s various elaborate daily hairdos.

“I like braiding.” Keith says with a shrug. “But I don’t want to deal with that much hair. Romelle likes sitting down and having someone do hers, so it works.”

“So this one’s you?” Shiro asks, fingers hesitantly hovering above the two tight braids on one side of Keith’s head that made him a faux undercut.

“Yeah, that’s me.” Keith grins proudly. Shiro tries to stay calm when Keith playfully butts his head against his hovering hand, and he settles with tucking some stray strands neatly behind Keith’s ear.

He coughs to clear his throat. “So… uh, I gotta go… There’s this big Math League the club’s been gearing up for and I promised our freshmen some mentoring time.”

“Right.” Keith nods. “Go be with your nerd friends.”

Shiro pouts through a smile as he starts walking away. “Hey, we’re cool nerds!”

“Still nerds.” Keith teases. “Be great, win the Nerd Tournament and be the Ultimate Nerd.”

“That’s a title of great honor, I’ll have you know!” Shiro calls back, not willing to let Keith have the last word on this one. Math Club is the one thing he took pride in. “When I become Ultimate Nerd, you owe me a meal in Waffle House.”

Keith leans against the lockers, thoroughly amused. “You mean, if you win?”

“ When I win.” Shiro insists. “It’s a date!”

Keith’s brows shoot up, and- okay, yeah, Shiro just said that. God, what would Keith think of him, just coming on to Keith like that-

Then Keith say, “Deal.” and Shiro stops dead in the middle of the hallway. “Also, you missed your turn.”

Shiro stares, before nodding indignantly. Yes, he did miss the turn he was supposed to take on his way to the Math Club room. He makes a lame attempt at Keith’s two-finger salute, before using the same hand to point at the adjoining hallway then stepping in that direction.

Then he hears, “Shiro, that’s to the gym!”

Shiro groans, does a 180, points at the right hallway and power walks like it’s no one’s business. “I knew that! Bye, Keith!”

Keith’s laughter echoes in his head for the rest of the day.

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Krolia likes Friday nights. Friday nights were for her, Keith and Romelle. She doesn’t cook on Friday nights. They just order in and spend the rest of the night either watching movies or, as is the case tonight, playing games.

Right now, she’s thoroughly enjoying beating her one and only son in Mario Kart.

“Ugh, no!” Keith complains, grumpily dumping his controller on his lap as he watched Rosalina throw her hands up in victory onscreen. “I never win at this thing against you, mom. You’re like a pro. It’s unfair.” he grabbed a slice of pizza and took a big bite.

“You’re just a sore loser, Keith.” Krolia says grabbing her own pizza. “Where’s your sister?”

Keith shrugs. “She says to leave her alone. She didn’t sound upset, though. Maybe she’s just writing another love letter.”

Krolia hums thoughtfully as she watches her son practically inhale the pizza. Teenagers and their appetite. “So, about this secret admirer of Romelle’s-”

As if summoned, Romelle makes her presence known as she storms down the stairs, screaming. She doesn’t stop until she collapses on the living room.

“MOM, HOLY FU- Oh, pizza.”

Keith and Krolia watch as she takes a slice and starts eating-

“MOM-… MOM, OMYGOCH .”

-while talking.

“An’-… an’ Keef ‘ya lil shitch.”

“Take your time, darling.” Krolia says. Keith pushes the glass of water towards his sister.

Romelle finishes her slice and gulps down the water bottoms up and takes a deep breath. “So, like, Keith, you gave me a note from Mr. Mystery Poetry today, right?”

Keith nods. “Yeah, what about it?”

“At the bottom he put his number and said I can call him, if I want to. If… If I’m ready.”

Krolia looks at Keith as he leans back against the couch. “Holy shit.” he whispers. “He did it, I’m so proud of him.”

“Wha-?” Romelle squints at her brother, but shakes her head in an attempt to stay on track. “So. I called him.”

Krolia turns to watch Romelle this time, and she is not disappointed by what she sees.

Romelle’s expression is one of utter horror as she shrieks, “SVEN HOLGERSSON?!”

“Mm- Yeah?” Keith shrugs. “Surprise?”

“Keith!” Romelle wails , grabbing at Keith’s pajama bottoms. “It’s Sven Freaking Holgersson!!! You didn’t tell me?!”

“You said not to tell you!” Keith shot back, also grabbing his pajamas lest his sister accidentally strip him on the spot.

“You could have warned me!”

“How the hell do I do that?!”

All the while, Krolia chews on her pizza and watches her children shout miserably at each other like one would watch a tennis match. Teenagers are so entertaining .

“Like- Like, I don’t know! Like you could’ve said, maybe-… Hey, sis, your secret admirer’s kind of a big deal- ”

“That makes no sense! Why would I do that?”

“I don’t know, you could’ve done- Something- Given me like, a clue -”

“You didn’t wanna hear any of it!”

“Oh, my God.” Romelle says, burying her face in her hands. “I’ve been flirting with Sven Holgersson for months -”

Krolia finally speaks up. “You look upset.” Then she turns to Keith. “You said he wasn’t ugly.”

“No, mom, he’s not ugly. Like, at all.” Romelle whines. “He’s the opposite of ugly, that’s the problem. He’s, like, this actual Adonis -”

“Ew.” Keith says, earning him a scowl.

“Huh.” Krolia huffs, brows furrowed. “…And he’s a big deal in school, why?”

“Quarterback.” Keith provides. “Campus heartthrob.”

“But like, in a good way!” Romelle adds. “He’s not a playboy, or a jerk, and he’s always so friendly and sweet with everyone… Oh god…” She hides in her hands again.

“He’s popular, huh?” Krolia whistles. “That’s my girl.” But also, she is really confused. “So… why are you upset?”

Romelle surfaces to say, miserably, “Because he’s Mr. Perfect, mom! And he likes me , of all people, and I-… I am shook .”

“Sweetheart.” Krolia says carefully. “He’s Mr. Perfect, you say?” Romelle nods. “Good, because that’s the least he can be to deserve my perfect daughter.”

And Romelle- Well, Romelle breaks down and switches from pulling on Keith’s poor pants to sniffling on her mother’s lap.

Keith shakes his head and mumbles, “Drama Club.”

He eats pizza and lets his sister and mother have a mother-daughter bonding moment.

Romelle gets her composure back after a while, and then she’s back to being her chipper self.

“Oh, he asked me out, too. On the phone, when we talked. He said he’d love to go on a date with me.” she says, then promptly weaponizes her still teary eyes as she blinks up sweetly at Krolia. “I told him I have to ask you first. So… can we go out on a date, mom? I really like him. Please?”

“Okay.” Krolia looks down at her daughter with a sweet smile and strokes the girl’s hair. “On three conditions.”

Romelle bites her lip. Keith lounges down on the couch – it’s his turn to watch this time.

“One: he picks you up here so I can have a word with him before you go.”

Romelle nods, eager. “I’m sure he’d love to meet you.”

“Two: curfew is still 10 PM.”

Another nod, this time with a toothy smile. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Three: Keith’s going with you.”

Romelle’s face falls, Keith drops his pizza and Krolia smiles in self-satisfaction as both her children exclaim together-

“What?!”

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