.
.
There are a lot of things that go through Kieth's head when he hears Pidge say over the com, "I'm going to eject."
For starters, he's absolutely sure the team is still in the atmosphere of the planet. They aren't in space and, yeah, his dashboard is telling him there is gravity. And gravity means falling. Secondly, he's not quite sure where that even came from. It'd been quiet, other than Lance babbling about something he ate that was giving him a stomach ache. They'd just been touring the planet, looking for Galra influence. They'd come up short handed, thankfully, but it just made the day more boring in his eyes.
Of course, when the green lion decided to flip upside down he started to regret ever thinking that.
"Uh, Pidge?" It's Shiro, and if he had the find a person to fit the bill of 'confused but definitely not going to take that sitting down' Shiro would fit there perfectly, "Mind running that by us again?"
"Yeah." Hunk laughs, but it sounds weak. "I mean, don't get me wrong here I could just be hearing things, but it sounded like you were going to eject?"
"I did." Pidge confirms and he could practically see her grin, "I'm going to eject."
"Uh!" Lance sounds just about as startled as he is, and a camera feed of the blue Paladin's face crops up on his dash. Lance is peering shrewdly at the camera, "Pidge! Quit playing around, we have to get back to the castle."
"Lance is right." Kieth pipes up, deciding adding his two cents might make a difference. "We've got other planets to search."
"I second that!" Hunk called.
There's a lengthy pause and he's sure that's the end of it, because the very idea is ludicrous. Maybe Pidge was just annoyed with something, and it'd been a joke? But Pidge wasn't one to just abandon ship. Besides Lance's stupidity and Hunk's panicky nature, Pidge was the only other level headed person he saw besides Shiro.
But then again. The green lion was still upside down.
"Pidge?" Shiro sounds only an octave away from a reprimanding parent.
"Yeah, yeah." Kieth holds his breath as he hears the green Paladin chuckle. "Trust me. It'll only be a second."
And the green lion flips one more time, only its mouth opens mid twirl. Kieth feel his gut drop, because the lions only ever open their mouth if-
And Pidge is falling.
There is a single, stunned second where Kieth is left staring forward in disbelief. To the side he sees the Yellow lion pitch to a halt, nearly summersaulting forward with momentum. The other lions stop to, facing the empty green lion.
Empty
"OH MY GOD!" Lance is the first to action, the blue lion squaring downwards into a nose dive. Kieth was hot on his heels, the red lion slowly taking over with speed. The downwards thrust was almost familiar, but he ignored the nostalgia in favor that his teammate was plummeting.
"Catch her guys!" Hunk yells from behind, the bulky lion not a match for their speed. He faintly hears the black lion roar from behind them, right on their tails. He could hear Lance making some squeaky noise.
"Eject? Eject? Are you kidding me?!" The blue paladin shouts. "Pidge!"
"Yeah?" It's almost startling how nonchalant she sound over the com, despite free falling down to the surface in nothing but her suit. Far below, he barely makes her out through the clouds. He wasn't sure how far the ground was, but accelerated, feeling his heart hammering in his ears.
"Don't yeah me!" Lance's voice cracked. "What are you doing?! Stop falling!"
"I can't stop falling." She says. "That's impossible. Did you even attend third grade?"
"Pidge!" Hunk's voice crackles in his ear, barely being made out through the yellow Paladin's own sobs. "I'm going to be sick fall up or something!"
"Pidge, hang on!" Shiro is shooting forward, a boost from the thrusters sending the black lion roaring past him and Lance, right up to their target. "Grab on!"
He can't see what happens next, only notices that the clouds part, revealing the ground to be as startlingly close as he feared. There was a cliff face far down below. And they were rocketing towards it.
"Shiro, she's going to hit the ground at this rate!" He yells. "Catch her!"
He makes out the frustrated grunt from their leader, but it's outshined by Pidge's long suffering sigh.
"Alright, alright." He can imagine her pouting. "Fine. Funs over."
"Fun?!" Lance and Hunk cry.
He opens his mouth, but clamps it shut when a small figure darts away from the black lion. It's green and impossibly tiny compared to the giant robot, but it isn't falling anymore. It's Pidge.
She has wings.
"Oh, wait, what-"
Lance is cut off and Kieth pitches forward, his head nearly hitting the window from the force of imbedding his lion into the cliff. He squawks and ends up tangled with his chair, hearing Lance have the same predicament. He can make out the large crashes of Hunk and Shiro landing their lions much more safely nearby. It takes a moment to re-orientate himself, and when he does he sees a grinning Pidge standing besides the black lion. Safe.
"Thank goodness." He hears Lance groan. "Pidge, warn us before inducing heart attacks!"
"What?" She blinks up at them from the ground, once again looking like an insect. "I said I was going to eject."
"You don't do that." Kieth managed, feeling overwhelmed. The excitement was humming in the air still and he still felt like at any moment Pidge would start falling up and they'd have to renew their chase. But she remained where she was, holding up an arm experimentally to reveal the tightly woven black Velcro of a bootleg wing she'd hooked to her suit. It looked half made, with a nice tear in on the side of it. His stomach flopped, but Shiro spoke before he could.
"Pidge, that was dangerous. What were you thinking?"
"I was just testing them out." She flapped them experimentally. "They work fine!"
"Fine? Fine?" Lance pops up on the camera feed again, flailing around. "You were almost made into a pancake! You could have told us you had a flight suit made, or something! We thought you were going to- to-"
"That'd I'd eject without a parachute?" He got the impression she was squinting at Lance's stupidity. "Who does that?"
"I don't know!"
"I'm a mess of emotions!" Hunk is still crying, "That was too scary!"
"I thought for sure…" Kieth sat back in his chair, resting a hand on his forehead to calm the building headache. He was never jinxing himself again, not in Pidge's company at least. The thought was hard to finish. The green lion makes its appearance by landing softly next to Hunk, crouching down for its pilot.
He hears Shiro sigh wearily, "Pidge, please be careful next time. Some communication would be nice."
He sees Pidge hesitant at the mouth of the lion, "You guys were that worried?"
"Yes!" He sees Lance throw his hands in the air, "You scared me half to death, you know? I'm not going to get over this! What if that suit hadn't have worked?!"
"Uh." He can practically see her sheepish grin. "Shiro would have caught me, right?"
"Pidge." Parental mode had been activated.
Kieth exhales through his nose, running a hand through his hair, "Shiro's right. You can't leap head first into something like that. Tell us first, so we can make some safety precautions."
"What Kieth said!" Hunk's lion tosses its head back and forth, almost like a fit. Pidge pilots the green lions head up to complete their circle.
"…Okay." Pidge mutters. "I might have went overboard. Sorry, for worrying you guys."
"You're forgiven." Lance crosses his arms on his monitor. "But seriously, do it over a lake or something next time."
"Or not at all." Hunk whines. "That sounds fun too."
Kieth snorts as Shiro directs them up again, flying back through the clouds they'd torn through in their haste. The post-adrenaline high was giving him a headache. He sees the green lion dip in front of him, almost smugly, and Pidge laughs.
"Alright, alright." His monitor shows her with a wide, but pleased grin. "I can even make some for you guys!"
He could feel the cringe from everyone but the green Paladin.
"Uh."
"Um, right…"
"It's kind of late…"
"We're gonna need a rain check on that." Shiro's voice is colored with amusement. Pidge laughs again, and he feels himself smile when Shiro says, "I think we've all done enough falling today."
.
.