Chapter Text
The alarm on his phone rings him out of a dream full of chocolate-chip pancakes and banana-milkshakes, a remnant from last nights unhealthy dinner-episode. Keith curses Shiro and his ability to make him do literally anything, especially if it includes pancakes, even at ten in the evening with the early shift in his neck.
Even though he feels a bit like dying, he gets up and walks straight into the bathroom for a cold shower. Nothing wakes him quicker as that nice, icy water which is only rivaled by Kosmo coughing up something weird in the middle of his bedroom.
After the shower Keith feels somewhat human, even if the cursed clock in his bathroom says something along the lines of half past four. In the morning. Because scheduling hates him.
Not even Kosmo is up yet, sleeping soundly in his little doggy house at the far end of the living room, so Keith makes sure to close the door when he starts rummaging through the kitchen. His stomach can‘t stomach a lot of food so early, so he keeps it simple with some black coffee and a quick sandwich that he‘ll eat in the car.
One would debate now if Keith is a good dog owner by not taking Kosmo out on a walk before his duty, but for the husky who has a mind on his own it seems to verge on animal abuse to drag him along the neighborhood in the crack dawn of the morning. Keith knows by now that this dog will under no circumstances go out before eight and his stomach full of food, and if Keith even looks at the leash hanging from the door, Kosmo will teleport himself someplace Keith can‘t find him.
He must be somewhere in the flat, but in the last three months living here, Keith did not manage to find him once during those episodes. It was logical, or basically the only option, to get a dog sitter to take care of that problem.
So, Keith lets the dog sleep and drinks his first coffee of many that day. He‘s not quite sure where he‘s flying today, since he didn‘t bother to look at more than just the check in time, but at least he knows that he has a point-to-point flight, meaning that he will get home in the afternoon. He can walk Kosmo then. Like the good dog owner he pretends to be.
On the other side of the thin wall, Shiro‘s shower springs to life. He‘s got an early check in as well, but he is crazy and requests them. Don‘t ask Keith why. Something about it being nice to have the afternoon free to do stuff, and liking to see the sunrise every day. Yeah, Keith can pass on that. Nothing will ever make him request early flights. Nothing!
The tiredness is gone by the time he finishes his coffee. His spare time as well. Keith leaves his cup in the kitchen, puts the sandwich into his red lunchbox and goes straight back to the bathroom to brush his teeth. And his hair, because that‘s getting long again. He really needs to see a barber before management starts nagging him about uniform standards.
Maybe he needs to put it into a ponytail as well. But not now. It‘s just too early for commitment like that.
He‘d rather commit to putting on a short sleeved dress shirt today. The weather forecast from yesterday announced over 90 degree, and even if he has a good working AC in his car, the walk from aircraft to the parking lot is not something he wants to complete in a long sleeved shirt.
Short it is.
Just like the way to work.
Keith lives in the same neighborhood as his old mentor and now colleague-slash-almost brother Shiro. Same neighborhood meaning they share a hallway in the same complex. Keith got the apartment thanks to Shiro putting in a good word for him at the landlady, and another good word when Keith brought Kosmo along out of nowhere.
It‘s also thanks to Shiro that Keith lives close to the airport, which saves him a lot of time, gas money and annoyance over traffic every day. He‘d rather spend his free time with Kosmo or with his bed than on a highway with 90 degrees outside. Bless Shiro, even his stupid, early flight loving heart.
The staff parking lot of his airline is already full, since most people start arriving at around five. His check in is at five fifty, and with twenty more minutes to spare, Keith takes his time finding a nice spot before heading out for security.
Since the usual rush-hour is already over, it takes literally no time to get through all the checks and, once outside the security building, airside on his way to the crew room. It‘s a quick, fifty feet walk along some aircrafts that are still sleeping soundly.
The whole airport is quiet, since the first flight starts at six, and disturbing the ban on night flights is too expensive for anyone to want to try it. Not that Keith wants to try that. He‘d rather be asleep himself.
The aircrafts still sleeping though means that the crew room must be full of people. And Keith is not wrong.
As soon as he sees the big, „Welcome to Altea Airlines Crew Room“ sign, the sound keyboards clicking, printers printing and crews briefing picks up. Roughly twenty crews, so about 120 people are gathered in the three floor building, everyone looking for a quiet spot to work or chat or just do whatever they need to do at five-thirty in the morning.
Keith greets a few colleagues he knows from previous flights, but since most of them are already on their way out, he doesn‘t hold them up with small-talk.
Not that he wants to do small-talk anyway.
Again, five-thirty in the morning.
He finds the nearest computer and logs into the system. A quick glance on the briefing sheet shows him the face of his captain, and a quick glance through the room shows him that he‘s not here yet. He prints a briefing sheet with the information about today‘s flight and crew, as well as the flight report they need for the aircraft.
When it‘s done he gathers the print-outs and heads for a free table in the corner. He doesn‘t know anyone from the crew, but the base is huge, with almost a thousand people working here, and he‘s only three months in. At the base in his previous company there were only five aircrafts and about two hundred crew, a little family like they liked to call themselves, but here at Altea it‘s a bit different.
Sometimes even a lot different.
But Keith never really minded the change, until today.