"Okaaay...log number...uh...I don't know what log this is, actually...okay."

Pidge rubbed his eye behind his glasses and then brushed through his hair with a groan. "Uh, anyway...it has been something like thirty earth hours since my last sleep cycle, but I really think I'm onto something here. The Galra transmissions I intercepted included a transport log of live cargo, and…" He yawned loudly, shivering before inhaling again. "...and I'm still deciphering it now, but one of the stops it made was on a planet not far from the camps Shiro thinks my dad was originally sent to. I'm close. I can tell. My family-their information-is in here. I just-just need to get it figured out."

He looked at the screen of his computer blearily. The camera reflected a face marred by exhaustion, heavy circles under drooping and bloodshot eyes, a mouth thin with concentration, glasses perpetually sliding down the bridge of a nose sniffling from the cold.

Pidge had locked himself in the cryo-case room, so the cooler atmosphere would help keep him awake. There were also four now-empty mugs of what had been some gross drink Coran had made-it reminded Pidge of coffee, but seemed to have much more caffeine-around where he was sitting, cross-legged on the floor and leaned against the control panel he was charging his computer from.

He'd done just about everything to keep himself awake, but he was running out of ideas, and he was very, very tired.

The computer dinged, and his lolling head was up in an instant.

15% Decrypted.

"Right, uh, end transmission for log whatever." He clicked the camera closed and went back to work. Stuck in the corner of the screen, the picture of his brother and himself-well, back then, herself-smiled up encouragingly. Pidge tightened his jaw, pushed his glasses back up, and began to type again.

Four human hours and three percent of additional decryption later, Pidge finally pushed the laptop off of his lap. The loss of heat triggered a shuddering spasm, which was fortunate for him, or he would've nodded off.

"Stay awake, stay awake!" He scowled, smacking his head above his ear. "You're too close now!"

Breep?

"Oh, hey, Rover. Glad to see someone's charged up."

The little droid whizzed around the room excitedly, pleased at itself for having opened the door alone. It settled and scanned Pidge, then began emitting quiet shrieks. If it was actually speaking, only Pidge would've been able to tell.

"No! I'm not sleeping, not yet, I have to wait until this is done decrypting!"

Groowrp!

"I know it'll take hours, but what if something goes wrong? I have to monitor it!"

Even though he was speaking determinedly, Pidge could hardly even open his mouth to speak, and as Shiro came through the door left open by Rover to see who else was awake so late at night, Pidge collapsed against the control panel, exhaustion finally taking over.

Shiro had entered the room confrontational, almost angry, but when he saw that it was only Pidge, his brow softened a bit.

He had been in what sounded like a heated argument with Rover, gesturing to the laptop on the ground next to him, when he suddenly slumped over. Shiro barely caught his head before it hit the sharp glass screen of the panel he was leaned against.

"Pidge? You okay?"

Then he looked down and saw the empty cups of what sounded like straight adrenaline, from Coran's description, and Pidge's baggy cowl-necked sweater unzipped to let cold air circulate through it, and the computer that had been running non-stop for forty hours and twelve minutes (as it counted in a small window in the bottom corner), and Shiro began to understand where Pidge had disappeared to after the team's last intense argument on deck. Nobody had dared to go after him, not after what Keith had pulled. It seemed that he'd locked himself in, because Shiro definitely remembered checking this wing of the castle earlier.

Pidge must've been working away the tension.

Shiro could respect that; at least he hadn't smashed a window, like a certain other mulleted paladin.

He lifted Pidge easily with his human arm; the kid was hardly smaller than his brother, and Shiro definitely remembered being able to throw Matt with ease. He didn't really like to touch people with the other arm, anyway. He figured it made them uncomfortable. Pidge fell forward against his chest with a huff, otherwise not stirring as Shiro cradled his neck carefully upright, worried about pulling his muscles. Just from a steadying touch, he could feel how tense they were. Had he really not slept in all this time? Carrying Pidge as if he was merely a sleepy toddler, Shiro left the room where they'd first found Allura, the computer still working dutifully, Rover hovering near where Pidge's hand hung from over Shiro's shoulder.

It wasn't until Shiro reached the hall of bedrooms the Paladins occupied that he realized that he didn't know which room Pidge was using. If he was using any of them, Shiro thought; Pidge didn't seem to sleep a regular cycle, rather napping for an hour or two at a time, and sometimes in ridiculous places. He understood the break room's rounded couch, but nearly had a heart attack each time he walked into the kitchen and saw Pidge on top of one of the cupboards. The kid was like a cat. He glanced at the doors to the rooms he knew were occupied; Hunk slept in the room closest to the opening of the hall, on the left, and Lance's room was across from his, though Shiro knew for a fact that he was currently asleep in Keith's room, the one with the smallest windows, one apart from Hunk's and two apart from the end of the hall. He knew because he could hear the snoring even from where he stood in the entrance to the hallway. Keith wasn't there, either way; he was probably still blowing off steam on the training deck.

That left seven rooms, three of which had never been unlocked, and two of which were equipped with cribs instead of beds. The only two possible rooms Pidge could've been using were the one next to Lance's and the one across from his own. Shiro assumed that Pidge would sooner throw himself out the airlock than willingly sleep so close to someone who snored so loudly, but he realized that he had never once seen Pidge in this hall at all. He glanced down at him, sleeping silently against his shoulder, glasses sliding across his face, hair sticking up and matted down in varying places.

The door to his own room slid open and he stepped inside. Rover beeped from the doorway, but didn't seem to want to follow. Shiro pulled the already-messy tangle of sheets and blankets to the end of the bed, retrieved one of his pillows from where it had been thrown across the room, and laid Pidge down. Still, he didn't stir, not even as Shiro pulled the covers back around him and tucked him snugly in. He sat at the edge of the bed and found himself gently brushing Pidge's hair out of his face, pulling his glasses off and closing them, laying them on the bed. Shiro smiled; he might've even laughed quietly as he stood and left the room.

He wasn't tired anyway, he thought as he yawned and stretched his arms above his head. The nightmares weren't worth it, he thought as he began to pace through the castle again.