HI GUYS! 

So, here I am, back to Borderline chapters! It just didn't feel right to leave a book unfinished like this, especially when it's published already, so I decided to write more here. I'm sorry you had to wait like this! I will try to update the best I can, alongside with my other book Query Quest. 

Therefore I have prepared two chapters here for you! I wanted to get three out, but I didn't know how long it would take to write them, and I didn't want you guys to wait even more, so for now it'll be two. Hope you'll like them ❤️

۝ ۝ ۝

My hands were quivering, and I didn't know why. This was only Keith, the same Keith I had been so eager to meet in the cave, and the same Keith that was so eager to meet me in the garden. There was nothing different about this way of communicating with him. 
Except that it was.

I pressed the button on the little device in my palm, every bubbly beep that emitted from the object like gunshots to my sanity. I could only hope that he would pick up, and not leave me hanging like this, with sweat on my forehead and my heart brushing over my throat. 

My room was filled with only those beeps for some ticks, until they abruptly stopped, and the communicating device started to form the image of my calling buddy, the holographic model of Keith's face whirring to life. The next tick, his face was there, in front of me, looking so darn real, in my own room. Or not, not entirely my own room; a little bit of the cavern wall behind him had appeared too, and it was like I was in two different places at the same time.
I stopped breathing, and didn't let out that air for some while. Keith blinked, and his eyebrows rose high, but I couldn't really figure out what he found so astonishing. The hologram flickered a little, but as soon as it came to focus again, I saw his hand slowly approaching my face, experimentally and hesitantly, like he wasn't entirely sure in what he was doing. Sooner or later, I would pass out from lack of oxygen, and it would be entirely Keith's fault.

It was like looking through water; blurry, slowed down. His hand coming toward my face, emerging from nowwhere, and suddenly I was questioning what was reality and what wasn't. However, when his hand came close enough, I knew it just went right through my face, and Keith frowned, withdrawing his hand, looking at it like it wasn't making any sense. I was ashamed to feel so disappointed, and even more bashful to want and rewind the moment, just to capture it a little bit longer. 

"Hm." The sound of Keith's huff sounded distorted, and I realized why. I quickly had to put my head above the imaginary water just to hear what he had to say. "It didn't work."

I was surprised I hadn't dropped the device already. "You mean... touching my face...?" The mice would have been jealous of the squeak my voice could muster.

Keith looked up again, the image of him wavering just a little, before it set to normal again and a smile had appeared on his lips. It must have been the cave that was disturbing the connection, and it was also the cave that was casting all these superfluous shadows over his face, which were bringing unnecessary feelings to my heart. What the hell had happened to me? Something must have happened to me overnight.

"Your face looked so real", he mumbled, his smile growing, both bigger and more timid. "I was just curious if it really was. Guess that this device isn't that advanced."

I felt my chest moving, but I couldn't hear my own breaths. Was this a case of breathing dead? Had I just come up with a case in my head that certainly didn't exist for someone else than myself? Yes. "Did... did you want... to touch my face...?"

Keith shrugged, and his flippancy didn't make any sense to me. "Nothing wrong with keeping things palpable."

I want you to be palpable, one side my brain chanted, but I quickly had to silence it down. But then I realized that Keith must have shared the same thought as me, and suddenly that sentence didn't seem as out of bound like it had originally been. So I simply just blurted it out.

"I want you to be palpable."

This wasn't in my head anymore, not kept to myself, and as soon as it left my mouth, I wanted nothing but to retract it. The words tasted too honest for me to utter, but it was already too late; Keith had already heard them, and his eyebrows twitched again, before shooting right up. By the time he said anything, all the blood in my body had traveled up to my face, and this time the blur I was seeing through had nothing to do with water.

"Me too...", he murmured, and I was quite certain that I was making things up in my head, but then he smiled again, and I had to amend to my own guesses. "But... this is the best we can get, right? I'm glad you could come up with a solution like this."

My hands were still trembling, and the image of Keith in front of me continuously wobbled because of that - it looked like he was shaking in actuality, so I promptly had to calm them down by gripping the object harder and pressing my hands firmly against my lap. 

As he moved the device a bit further away from his face, more of his body came into sight, and the image of the cave seemed to spread even further, until if I focused really hard, it felt like I was there again, with him in the cave. The only thing that differed from me actually being there, was the lack of the sound and smell from the fire in front of us, and the very potent petrichor and musty scent. Now I couldn't smell anything different than my own plain, boring smell.

"But you'll keep on visiting me here, right?" I pleaded, hating how tenacious he made me, and how I always waited for what he had to say with bated breath. I suspected what kind of feelings I was experiencing, but I didn't really want to admit it to myself just yet. "Right?!"

Keith let out a breathy laugh, and my heart had to take a little break. My chest felt excavated as it left my body. "I will, but not as often. Not when we have this option too. To call each other. I don't want to push my luck that much."

My shoulders dropped, and I felt how my eyebrows jiggled, my heart leaping back to my chest to thump in frustration against my ribcage. "Huh?! But you said that you would show me a reality where risks doesn't exist! You said...!"

"I know...", he chuckled, and once again, my heart packed its things and left. "...but now that I know that there is another alternative to use, which isn't necessarily bad, I want to try and stay away from the risks the best I can. And it's not like we won't see each other anymore."

"But this isn't the same!" I said, a little bit too loud, and I threw an anxious look towards the door - that wasn't covered by the holographic cave -, worried that someone would pass my bedroom and hear that I was yelling, and if they were to come in, I would have to end the call and it would just look like I were talking to myself. I wasn't sure if I was ready to face that kind of ignominy, especially not when I had already felt so humiliated when first calling Keith. "You're not actually here, so it's not the same!"

He blinked, and I hated how well the hologram captured his surprised expression, how his purple irises looked so neon even from a face call. He shuffled a little, and I was beginning to think that I had reached that point of really weirding him out. I was impressed that it took him this long to finally realize how kooky I actually was.

I was ready for him to end the call, and probably forget his whole mission to elude from Altea as soon as possible, but he reached out for my face again, quicker this time, and he maintained eye contact the whole time. His hand stopped just beside my face, and when I glanced at it, I saw that he was pointing at my left ear, and he tilted his head to the side, grinning. 

He said: "Lance, I'll visit you. Don't worry. But I'm still counting on you using your ears better. I'm serious when I say that you can be in real trouble if you're not aware of who's approaching you. You're lucky it's just me."

I don't wanted him to pull back, but I had to conceal the disappointment on my face the best I could, but I couldn't suppress my groan, and Keith gave me an addled look. I quickly had to cover my mistake up, so I said: "Not everyone have ears like yours, Keith! I can't hear the flutter of a breath, and I can't hear the particles in the air like you do." I pointed at him, and he eyed my finger closely. "Your ears can't be normal, honestly."

He looked amused. "Your ears is what isn't normal. They can barely function. Are all Altean ears like that, or is it just you?"

"Are every half Galra aggravating, or is just you?" I retorted, trying to look austere, but I felt that little tug of the corner of my mouth. I saw how Keith was struggling to hide his smile too.

"No, that's just me", he said, his lips twitching, but I saw how he was losing a battle against himself.

I had already lost that battle, though, and my smile spread so broadly that my cheeks ached. I had lost the battle since long ago, since I first met Keith, but now I was finally experiencing the sense of peace and reconciliation. I'd lost a battle against myself, but it was for a good cost. So I let myself smile at him, not saying anything. I didn't know what to say anyways.

I saw how his mask was cracking, and directly after, I saw how a grin was slowly spreading out through the rifts, like he was giving in too. He didn't say anything either, because somehow, he must have understood.

۝ ۝ ۝

It came to a point where I had to end the call, and every second of our goodbyes felt physically painful. I always tried to prolong it, arguing that we could make it last a little bit more. But even through a call, did Keith need to go to take care of his business, and there was really nothing I could say to make him stay a  little bit more. I couldn't think of anything now, at least, and I made a note in my head to figure something out later.

But as soon as Allura called for me from outside my room, I clicked the button and threw the device to the side, bolting up from my bed in a matter of ticks. The abrubt motion made my head swirl, I stumbled up to my door, letting it open, almost tumbling into Allura's bosom in my state of dizziness. She quickly caught my arm and pulled me upright.

"Are you okay, Lance?" she asked, concern lazing her voice.

I swallowed, unable to meet her gaze. "Yeah yeah... Just got up from the bed too quickly."

Allura's face immediately softened, and she chuckled. "Oh Lance", is all she said.

Usually, I would have made a remark, but now I couldn't do anything else but to gulp, feeling like my secrets could be revealed somehow, like my sister would somehow be able to see through my skull and read my thoughts. I knew it was stupid, but I could still feel the very strong presence of the communicating device behind me, like it was threathing to out me in some kind of non-logical way.

"Is everything alright otherwise?" she then asked, and the sound of her voice made me flinch, realizing I had drifted off into my own little helter-skelter, lie-filled world. She'd placed a hand on my shoulder, tilting her head downwards to catch my gaze that was fixated on the floor. "You seem a little lost. Did something happen?"

I had to look her in the eye this time, but could only hold it for some tics before I had to avert my eyes again so I wouldn't have to see her face as I lied. "It's nothing. Maybe I'm just really hungry. I hope you and Hunk actually did something else than to just translate recipes."

I knew that Allura was troubled, especially since I refused to even look her in the face. But still, I could hear the littlest smile slink in to her words. "We left some for you. Come and eat."

I swallowed all my guilt and anxiety in one gulp, hoping that it would stay at the pit of my stomach for just a little bit, only to survive dinner at least.
I threw a glance over my shoulder, to make sure it was still there, and then walked out of my room.

۝ ۝ ۝

I had barely survived dinner.

Which eventually led to Allura's suspicion increasing.
Her conjecture was probably that I missed Nyma that much, but what she didn't know was that it wasn't that yellow alien I missed at all. Rather a purple one.

Even as a exited the dining room, my mind couldn't help but to be adrift. Notably during my shower. It felt like my brain was flying out of my head for the moment, and I couldn't reach for it anymore.

It felt chilly as I stepped out again, my robe doing little in warming my body up, and I quickly made my way over to my room again. As I let the doors open, I immediately noticed something, and flew over to my bed. My hands bluntly reached for the communicating device I had left before dinner, and it almost slipped from my grip in my hurry to take it.

I looked down at it in my palms, watching as it blinked in a white light, signalizing that I had received a message. It could only be from one person.

My finger automatically pressed down on the button at the side, and my breath came out wobbly. As I sat down on my bed, my body half pulled up on against the headboard, the hologram flickered to life, not a picture of Keith, but almost equally as good.

A message sent from him.

Device coded #2159

Goodnight, Lance. I'm happy this gadget exists so it gives me a chance to tell you that.

The words hovered in front of my face, clear bright and white. The keyboard automatically popper up in front of me, like it knew to get me ready to reply. But before I could proceed to do such a thing, I needed to get my heart beats sorted out first. No, there wasn't even heartbeats to fix, since my heart had completely stopped.

My whole arm shook as I lifted in, like in thick mud, trying to speed the motion up, but the viscous substance only slowed it down. I had had time to turn into a skeleton when my finger finally pressed the first button on the keyboard.

Device coded #2202

Hey! You can't just drop a goodnight without expecting me to actually stay up all night to text you. Please don't fall asleep on me now!

My answer popped up in the air, just under his message, shining fulgent in my face, and my heart was flipping uncontrollably in my chest. Either it was freaking out, or it just wasn't there at all. There was no in between.

Keith's reply arrived almost immediately, and I bit down my lip to try and stifle my upcoming smile, even if I knew that he couldn't see me.

Device coded #2159

I'll be up for a while. You can text me until you fall asleep.

It was preposterous, really, how he could make me simper this way, making my cheeks throb from the exertion of smiling so much. 

Device coded #2202

Funny for you to assume I will be the one to fall asleep first. You should know I can go on for DAYS without sleep.

Device coded #2159

I'm up for the challenge.

The blue lights around me had started to dampen, fitting for the time of the day, and it was enfolding me in such a soothing way, or maybe it was just Keith, and his messages coming into view, one after another. I never got the chance to talk to him late at night, never gotten to communicate with him in my own room. Even if he wasn't practically here, he was still very much present. It made my eyelids flutter, and I knew I wouldn't last too long. But at the moment, I couldn't really care enough if I lost to the challenge or not. Every respond he made, felt like waves of him, all around my room, bouncing around from wall to wall until they hit me and lulled me to a deep sleep.

I had just started to drift off, until another message arrived.

Device coded #2159

Sleep well, Lance.

I tried to lift my arm up to time in a reply, but it was pulled down by such a strong force that it astonished me. My whole body felt filled with lead, and it was so warm. 

Just before I fell asleep completely, I had time to partly read another message of his, but my head was so cumbersome, I could barely process any of the words.

Device coded #2159

I know you're asleep by now... That's why I can write this to get my thoughts  somewhat sorted out, even if you won't read any of this. You see Lance, I really l...

The words got blurry, I had to close my eyes, and fall asleep.

۝ ۝ ۝

My Klance starved heart told me to write this.