AU where Katherine Holt has a massive crush on Lance, from afar. She is socially awkward because she skipped a few grades and now is the youngest person at the college/university. She gets recruited by Coran for his robotics club and there she meets Allura. Allura instantly wants to be friends but Katherine is shy and self conscious. She’s used to being in the background, the brains behind the curtain so to speak. Allura is patient though, she knows how it feels to be different. So she chips away at her walls. Besides she doesn’t want to change her just change everyone else’s perspective…especially Katherine’s. Once she finds out about Katherines crush on Lance she decides to use that line to tug.
Katherine is smart, witty and a bit devious. Unknown to Alllura, Katherine also goes by Pidge and is currently a consultant for her brother and his partner who works for the FBI. She does a lot of the computer work with Matt. Initially Shiro was very against Pidge helping but after getting to know her, he can’t help but be impressed. Hell, he’s half in love with her and knowing she doesnt connect well with people her age, he deliberately hangs out with both the Holts. Hiijinks ensure and their bond helps Pidge blossom.
Meanwhile, Allura starts dating the new guy at school-Lotor. Who has some conflicts with Lance and his friend Hunk. It’s around this time that Lance starts to notice Katherine, who he quickly nicknames Katie. She’s tiny, quiet and supportive. She always seems to be smiling and laughs at all his jokes. As Allura starts to hang out with Lotor, Katie falls into hanging out with Lance and Hunk. Hunk loves her, she eats all his cooking and she is wicked smart. They join the robotics club and are soon winning much of the competitions. Until they join an underground fight club for their robots.
The only reason they are doing the whole underground fighting however is because Pidge had overheard how her brother hit a bunch of blocks on the current case. So she dropped breadcrumbs for Lance to follow, which he of course ran for and somehow it was his idea to compete. It’s here that Lance sees his old nemeses Keith.
But Pidge has done her research and she knows that Keith is old friends with Shiro-so she instantly puts him in the friend column, especially after doing a deep five into his history via some hacking. Fortunately, he’s friends with Acxa who is friends with Lotor who Pidge believes is somehow connected to all this.
Paths are crossed. And while Keith doesn’t hate Lance, he does make his presence known. So Keith naturally observes Katie, who is kinda dating Lance. The more he watches the more he doesn’t understand. How does everyone thing Katie is so sweet and nice? She’s sarcastic. She’s tricky. She’s suddenly all he can think about. He’s constantly searching for that moment, that glint she gets when she does something…un-Katie like. But is like he’s the only one who sees. It drives him mad. He’s obsessed.
One day, he sees some guys hassling her and he goes to step in, not even thinking she could take care of herself. But boy does she. She wipes the ground with the guys and Keith witnesses it all. He calls her on it. She shrugs it off as self defense, duh.
But now Katie realizes Keith is onto her. What to do…she needs help and she hasn’t told her brother…yet. Then suddenly there’s a raid at the fight, and chaos ensues. At some point Keith is trapped and he’s ready to bash some heads when Katie appears. She pulls him along to one of her preplanned exit plans when she sees an opportunity to hack the mainframe that is usually heavily guarded. Decided she has to go with her gut, she tells Keith and of course he’s in. With zero thought. Watching her, Keith grins, satisfied with the knowledge he was right. She was so much more than she appeared.
Obviously a slow burn where Keith fell first, and Katie realizes, a crush is so much different than love…
