One

     Of all the evil things he had to deal with, this was perhaps the worse. Of course, it was all his own doing… Keith pried his dark eyes open and stared at the angry red LCD display on the shelf on the other side of his room. From the tiny clock came the most horrendous beeping alarm you ever heard. And to turn it off would involve getting up and crossing the room, an act that would fully wake him up. He'd moved it from his bedstand after discovering he had a habit of not only hitting snooze automatically, but of tearing the thing out of the wall after the fourth time it restarted. So he placed the little clock far enough away that he couldn't reach it with his hand, or with any number of easily grabbed items that surrounded his bed. To lob a book at the thing would take only slightly less energy than getting up.
     He threw his legs over the edge of the bed and slowly stood, nearly falling over stuff on the floor twice in his groggy attempt to get to the clock before anyone started banging on the wall for him to shut it off.
     This morning he yanked it clean out of the wall again. He considered going back to bed for just a few minutes, then pivoted and headed for the bathroom. He'd promised the Princess another early morning practice session in Black Lion. And knowing this, he'd stayed up half the night with Lance playing video games and watching horror movies. With two and a half hours of sleep under his belt, he had little doubt that Allura was probably going to trounce him, but he'd sworn to her that they would go out, and couldn't go back on his word. God, sometimes it sucked being the leader.
     By the time he got out of the shower, Keith was feeling more high than tired, his feet barely on the ground as he did his usual morning routine of making his bed and cleaning his room by cramming everything into the closet or under some piece of furniture where it would be concealed, giving it the appearance of being immaculate.
     Keith nearly crashed headlong into Allura in the control room. She looked bright and perky as ever, ready to go. He, on the other hand, was ready to kill for a pot of coffee… and he didn't even like the stuff! He forced a smile that she happily returned.
     "Ready to go?"
     "Yatta!" she giggled. He sighed inwardly. It was gonna be a long day.

     He was right. His senses were so dulled and sluggish that he could barely keep the Blue Lion from drifting, much less give Allura instructions on his lion and dodge her attacks. She ended up calling off the session after noticing his very delayed reactions to her offense. On the way back to the Castle of Lions, he confessed his exhaustion to her, apologizing.
     "You should have told me! What if I accidentally hurt you? Nanny says you need at least eight hours of sleep a night!"
     "Princess," Keith chuckled, "I'm 16 and male. On Earth that means if you get four hours in between partying and other obligations, you are doing really well."
     "What else does being 16 and male mean on Earth?" she asked, curious.
     "It means you take a lot of risks and get yelled at by your family and cheered by your friends for being either really brave or really insane… I haven't decided which yet. That's more Lance's department."
     "But he's 17."
     "Yeah. That means he gets to take the CRAZY risks."
     "Oh! That explains it!" she beamed as if that really was the answer. Keith just laughed again and shook his head.

     He woke again around noon. He'd slept through breakfast and raided the kitchen for something to eat. No surprise he met Hunk there, already cleaning out the smaller fridge of leftovers.
    "Ahem." Keith gave him a slightly annoyed look, leaning slightly forward, hands on hips, ears perked. The young myriad weighed maybe 125 pounds soaking wet, but still the much larger feline cowed to him, if only in play.
     "I wasn't gonna eat it all…" he grinned weakly, his eyes darting from his leader to the chocolate cake in his hands.
     "Sure you weren't…" Keith smirked at the tiger, his tail twitching back and forth. Instead of indulging himself, he squeezed past Hunk and scrounged until he found some fresh strawberries and a can of whipped cream. His favorite impromptu breakfast.

     Keith wasn't sure how he found himself in the market square, but there he was, wandering from merchant to merchant who sold items from every corner of Arus and more than few from all over the galaxy.
     He lingered for a long moment at a textile booth, admiring the fine leathers and silks for sale. A fringed violet leather coat caught his attention. It was more a jacket, solid to the waist and long ribbons of bead-tipped leather from there down to the ground, all the most beautiful royal purple. He held it up against his slender frame; a perfect fit. His taste in clothes was already in serious question, not helped at all by today's choice of tight black suede pants and a light blue denim tunic embroidered with slender white Chinese dragons. When he'd walked by Lance, the fox had smirked and coughed "rockstar" before going his own way. It made the young wolf glad he'd left his leather collar on the dresser…
     Shrugging, he paid for the jacket and draped it around his shoulders. He drew more than a few odd glances as he curiously peeked from vendor to vendor, the beads of his new coat rattling softly. He wasn't known for being a compulsive, wild shopper, but if something caught his eye, he'd often shell out a goodly amount to acquire it.
     This time it was a prismatic glitter from a blanket spread out in a shabbier corner of the market. The rotund cat-man sitting cross-legged looked at the young wolf with a twinkle in his eye as Keith knelt and picked up the pendant. The stone reminded him of the cross product of a diamond, a fire opal, and a cat's eye sapphire. It shone with every color he could imagine, and the center flashed with an internal fire.
     "Like that, do you?"
     "It's wonderful… Is this hematite?" he queried softly, fingering the metallic stone carved to look like a serpent that coiled around the gem, trying to find the seam.
     "Not sure. I only recently came across it. Man who sold it to me said it was a G'hosi. A wish stone." He chuckled heartily at the momentary look of wonder on the boy's face, but Keith was more entranced with the beautiful stone than any legend attached to it. His friends often poked fun at him for his attraction to sparkly things, especially gems, saying he must have packrat DNA in him, or that of a crow. Pidge had pointed out that his hair was the right hue for a crow. Despite the friendly jokes, Keith had one of the most spectacular private gem and mineral collections their side of the galaxy. He was determined to add this stone to his collection.

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