Love in the Castle Air

Realization

Shiro's POV
I just finished taking a shower after a hard day of training when I hear an echo of squeaking come down the hall. It seems to go on forever until I can't take it anymore. It was very irritating so I go outside after putting on pants, but not putting on my shirt because I couldn't wait any longer to investigate.

I initially thought it was just the space mice until I heard the panting. This made me think it was someone running with wet feet. Now this was something that puzzled me. "Who would be running with wet feet right after training? And who? And why?" he thought about this as the squeaking came closer. From what he could tell everyone was very worn out after their exercises so it made no sense to him.

Lost in thought he was caught off guard when a flustered Pidge came skidding around the corner. She may have startled him, but he apparently startled her more as she slipped in her towel and fell forward. His quick reflexes caught her by the arms before she hit the ground. He blushed slightly at seeing her towel fall lower exposing her cleavage before she quickly got up.

"Woah! Are you okay?" I asked her. "You really shouldn't be running like that. You could fall and hurt yourself-" I started to say when she looked up at me with those amber eyes, a slight blush creeping up her cheeks. Pidge then quickly tore her gaze away from me and said, "I'm fine thank you so much for catching me I promise I'll be more careful next time I really gotta go now bye!""Uh okay.." was all I said. I stood in shock watching Pidge scramble down the hallway. "Well that was............interesting." he thought.

"I wonder why she was in such a hurry." Shiro thinks to himself as he walks back into his room to finish getting dressed. "And why was she dripping wet in a towel?" His train of thoughts and questions continued until he remembered her towel falling down and he felt himself getting red. His thoughts quickly became frantic from this. "Wait. Hold on. W-What's happening? D-Do I like her? I-I-I can't like her? She's so much younger! Besides Matt would kill me! She probably already likes Lance or something! But then again everyone already knows he and Kieth have a thing for each other and that they're off limits! How do I even like her? N-No! I can't! I mean, sure she is kind of adorable.... with those big amber eyes....... and she's so smart.....and small....... And I guess she can be cute when she acts sassy." He could feel the blush getting harder. His mind was going crazy now. "Oh no. Stop it Shiro! This is bad. Very Bad. What am I supposed to do?" He pondered this for a bit. "The best thing to do is nothing. Get over yourself Shiro. You're too old for her. There's so many other reasons, why this is a terrible idea. Even if she did like me, we're in the middle of a war!" he concluded. "But I can't help how I feel. I think I do like her. No, I know I like her. A lot."

He slumped over to his bed in defeat as he remembered all the times he'd hung over at Katie's house with Matt. Matt would always ask him who he likes and stuff like that but he was never into any of the girls that pined after him at the garrison.

Matt would ask Shiro, "So which girl do you actually like? You have so many to pick from..." Whenever he would ask these questions Shiro would just avoid the conversation. He would then bring up something about hard drives which kept Matt distracted for hours on end making him forget the awkward tension from his original question.

Then he saw Katie. He remembered fondly seeing her for the first time. They met and he immediately felt a bond. Back then he didn't know what it was but he suddenly felt the need to protect and care for her. Almost like another big brother, but now he was thinking he wanted to be more than that.

"For all I know she probably just thinks of me as a big brother figure and more like family that could never turn into anything else." he thought disappointed. At this point Shiro couldn't stop thinking about her. There were no other girls in mind. Sure, in the beginning he thought Allura was charming, but they bonded and grew to have a sibling relationship that was strictly platonic. The little feelings he had for her in the beginning had completely disappeared and were now all replaced by Pidge.

As thoughts filled his head he hears Hunk over the intercom calling for dinner. "Oh boy. This is going to be awkward." he thinks to himself as he makes his way to the dining hall.