Kidge Summer Event Prompt 1: Sunrise/Sunset

Title: It All Ends With You

Summer in Utah was the same every year: hot and dry. Pidge had always wondered why the state only outlawed aerial fireworks instead of all fireworks. It was fire season, and as usual, the state itself seemed to be burning.

Some of the fires were natural, of course. But for the most part, they were human caused. Now that Pidge was back from space and had learned about her connection with nature, it pissed her off more than ever that people weren't being more careful.

Pidge had grown up in Utah, but her family had moved to Arizona to be closer to the Galaxy Garrison after her father was hired on as a part of the staff. They still had family in Utah, though, and were visiting for the summer. She'd decided to bring Keith with her, because Krolia had taken a "vacation" in space to tie up some loose ends with the Blade of Marmora. Since all of the other paladins had families to be with, Pidge had taken Keith in, insisting that they had plenty of room for the man.

What she didn't expect was his horrible sleep schedule.

Pidge was woken up at what could only be described as five o' dark in the morning. Music was playing from the room next to hers, and she could hear grunts, presumable from Keith's morning workout. She groaned and rolled over, pulling her pillow over her head in a vain attempt to block it out and get more sleep.

This, of course, didn't work.

Keith nearly jumped when he heard the thud from the next room. It sounded as though somebody had kicked the wall in frustration. He paled as he realized two things:

One: Pidge was in the room next to his

Two: She was NOT a morning person.

It had been a while since he'd stayed with any of the members of team Voltron, having spent the last year since the war ended with Krolia in his house in the desert or at the Garrison. Krolia was usually up even earlier than him, and he'd forgotten that not everyone likes to work out in the early morning.

He heard the creaking of the bed next door moving. He gulped, realizing that Pidge had stood up. He frantically scrambled for his phone so he could turn of his music, but couldn't get there before his door was thrown open.

"Kogane, I swear, if you don't turn that music off, I will make you suffer in ways worse than even the Galra could imagine."

Keith turned around to find Pidge in an oversized night shirt and gym shorts, bags under here furious eyes. Her hair was a mess. Oh, and she was holding her bayard.

"You can keep your bayards and armor," Allura had told them. "You never know when you're going to need them."

The ominous green glow told Keith that her bayard was charged and could electrocute him at any moment.

Pidge glared at Keith, which didn't take much effort since she was already squinting from his light. Normally, she would have been flustered at seeing Keith in nothing but his boxers, but it was too early for that. She had only gone to bed a few hours previous, and was not about to lose any more of her precious sleep just because Keith wanted to keep his body toned.

Pidge turned off the light. "Either go back to sleep or go to a gym. I'm not dealing with this." The only light from the room was from her bayard and Keith's phone, which he was holding in his hands as he finally managed to shut the music off.

Pidge reached for the door, but stopped, seemingly distracted by something. Keith followed her eyes to his window, where a faint red glow seemed to emanate. He stood up and looked through the blinds. "Oh my gosh…Pidge, come look at this."

Grabbing the pull chord, he lifted the window blinds to reveal the beginnings of sunrise. It wasn't bright enough yet to be painful, and the pair leaned against the window sill as they watched the sun climb over the mountains.

"Wow, now that's spectacular. Hey, Pidge, why is it so red?"

But she was already asleep, leaning against his bare chest.

Pidge woke up many hours later. It looked like Keith had carried her back to her own bed after she fell asleep watching the sunrise. She chuckled at the thought of him trying to maneuver her through the doorways without waking her up.

Looking at her phone, she sighed in happiness as she realized that she'd managed to get a lot more sleep. It was almost 2:00 in the afternoon. Just how she liked it. She also had a message from Keith.

"Text me when you get up. I'll spend the day with you to make up for waking you up so early."

She smiled. He really was a sweet guy. Maybe that's why her entire family, including the relatives they were staying with, wanted them to get together. He was just…well, perfect.

"I'm awake. What exactly do you have planned?"

She got dressed and headed downstairs as she waited for his response. Turned out she didn't need her phone.

"Here," Keith said, handing her a bowl of soup. "You missed out on lunch, so I had this in the microwave. I set the timer as soon as you said you were up."

"Thanks, man." She gladly ate the soup. The biggest culture shock in coming back to Earth had definitely been the food. No more disgusting green goo. Initially, all of the paladins' pallets had rejected the Earth food, and they were all sick for the first few days they were home. After recovering, however, they were happy to have food with actual flavor again.

It wasn't particularly special. Just some Campbell's vegetable soup. That didn't stop it from being good, though. Keith was surprised at how quickly Pidge drained the bowl. She smiled up at him, and he couldn't help but find it adorable. "Thanks, Keith. I really appreciate it."

He turned away to hide his blush. "Yeah, well, it was no big deal. I just wanted you to eat so you're not hungry while we're out later."

"Out? Is that what you had in mind when you said you wanted to spend the day with me?"

Keith grinned. "Well, you haven't been able to ride my hover bike since we kidnapped Shiro. How'd you like to see how fast it moves when there's not five people piled on it?"

Pidge couldn't believe her ears. Keith hated giving people rides. He must really have felt bad about that morning.

"I'd love to, Keith!" She didn't mean to sound so giddy about it, but she did anyway, and covered her mouth in embarrassment. "I mean, uh, sounds cool, I guess."

Keith punched her arm. "Stop trying to act like me, you weirdo. Grab whatever you think you'll need for a day out and meet me out front."

At first, they weren't going to any particular destination. They got frozen custard from Culver's and ate it at a playground, to the confusion of all the kids playing there. Riding on Keith's bike felt so liberating. She hadn't felt so exhilarated since the last time she flew the Green Lion. It had been a year since the lions were returned to the Castle of Lions, which usually stayed near the Galaxy Garrison unless it was away on diplomatic missions.

Keith was glad Pidge couldn't see his face, because he knew full well that he'd be blushing as she clung desperately to his waist.

He was surprised at the backpack she brought. It seemed to be stuffed full of who knows what, but didn't appear to be all that heavy. He was torn from his thoughts as Pidge tapped his shoulder and he pulled over.

"Hey, I have an idea, but first, we should grab some dinner. It's almost seven."

The closest restaurant was Arctic Circle.

"It somehow feels weird to be spending less on our meals than we did on the custard we bought earlier," Keith muttered as he paid for their food.

"That's because that was good quality custard. This is mediocre fast food. It does, however, have great fry sauce."

"Fry sauce?" Keith asked in confusion as they sat at a table.

"Oh right, I forgot that fry sauce is a Utah thing. The most basic fry sauce is just ketchup and mayonnaise mixed together, but a lot of restaurants get a bit classier than that, making some really good sauces. To me, it's always good no matter how it's made. Even home made is fine."

"Ketchup…and…mayonnaise? Who on Earth thought of combining those two?"

"Someone smart, apparently, because it's really good. Try it."

Keith was surprised at how good the strange sauce was. "Why don't more people know about this?"

"Probably because their initial reaction is similar to yours: ketchup and mayonnaise don't make a new sauce."

"Well then I'll have to tell them they're wrong. Anyway, what was the idea you had?"

Pidge glanced out the window and grinned. "Okay, there's a spot I want you to take me to. It's called Potato Hill. It's not super far from here."

It didn't take Keith long to realize what Pidge was doing. When they got to the hill, there were a few couples and small groups of people on the lower part of the hill. Pidge grabbed his hand. "Come on, we need to go all the way to the top."

He got up there and gazed in amazement at the view. From their position, they could see the entire Salt Lake Valley. The sun was setting over the Oquirrh Mountains on the other side. It was a much deeper red than the sunrise they had witnessed that morning. Their seemed to be an entire rainbow of colors in the sky.

"Pidge…this is…"

"The smoke created from all of the fires is really bad for the air quality, but I'll be darned if it doesn't make some of the prettiest sunsets. My brother showed this place to me years ago, and it was one of the few places I wished I could come back to while we were in space. Now I have that chance, and I get to spend it with you."

"Me? What makes me so special?" Keith helped Pidge lay out a blanket from her backpack.

"You'll have to wait and see."

They sat on the blanket, bundled up together in another one, watching the sun set. Soon enough, it was getting dark.

"I once read some cheesy thing online," Pidge said, breaking their long silence. "If you count the stars and say some silly verse, then repeat that for ten days, counting first ten stars, then nine, and so forth, then on the last night you'll dream about the person you're supposed to marry."

Keith snorted. "Sounds cheesy. Have you tried it?"

Pidge smiled. "I have. And you're right, it's just a bunch of baloney."

Keith was about to say something more, but stopped, looking at something behind Pidge. "What's that glow?"

Curious, the two walked to the northern edge of the hill and were astonished to discover that they were right above the Draper Utah LDS Temple. "That's one of those Mormon temples, isn't it?"

"Well yeah, they're all over the state. You can see at least three just in this valley."

"It's really pretty from up here."

"You should see the inside. I've only seen a little of it, but it's amazing. Some day I want to see the rest."

"You're Mormon?" Keith asked, somewhat surprised.

"I am. My whole family is. Why do you think I have so many relatives in Utah?"

"Then…how do you see the rest of the temple?"

"There's a few different ways, but one way…" she laced her fingers through his. "…is to get married."

Keith smiled as she rested her head on his shoulder.

"After the tenth night," she said, continuing her previous conversation, "the person I dreamed about was you."

Okay, so I know I'm late to the event. Like, way late. But hey, at least I'm participating. There's only three prompts, but I intend to fill them all, so stay tuned for the other two!

Yes, these are all real locations. I'm from Utah. Potato Hill is one of the best places to go stargazing and watch the sunset. I went up there recently, and with all of the fires around the state, the sunset was amazing. And the temple seemed to cast a glow on the mountain it's nestled up against.

No, of course none of the characters are canonically Mormon. This is probably the only time I'll ever bring it up, since I don't want to spark controversy and sound preachy.