Just knowing you was never enough for Keegan.

Stealing glances wherever he could, using his reputation to pull strings, just so he could be a little closer to you than everyone else was — too shy to say a word, but more than infatuated. God the way he’d spoil you given the chance.

Despite the quiet lurking in the shadows, you felt yourself being watched, catching his glistening crystalline gaze lingering one too many times in debriefing, in the mess hall, hallways — just about everywhere, silently debating what flower would be the best choice to fill your room with.

However, him turning up at your door at six in the morning was more than out of the ordinary. Covering your mouth to yawn, you noticed the tube in a tightfisted grip by his side as he leaned against your doorway, while he stared at the way your mouth moved. This time his thoughts were the furthest from pure.

His eyes pierced through you as the question fell from his obscured lips — the blue somehow more impactful without the dark contrast around them, each second spent looking into them like watching a waterfall in motion.

“Can you do my eyeblack for me? I hurt my wrist in training.”

A simple request appealing to your good nature, a lie, honeyed by the lower tone of his morning voice. He needed you.

That’s how you ended up in Keegan’s lap, with his insistence you were too short to reach above his eyebrows, that and it was uncomfortable bending down. One large hand splayed out across your lower back, leaving the other free to tuck a lock of hair behind your ear as your fingertips slowly worked the paint into his skin, his crept beneath your shirt.