All Lance wanted to do was climb in bed and have a nice long sleep forever and ever. After all, he had died and been resurrected back to life today— he figured he deserved a little R&R time.

The whole experience felt like a dream. There was the bolt of electricity coming toward Allura, a flash of adrenaline running through him, the pain, and then— nothing. A fuzzy darkness that swallowed him whole. The mere thought of it sent a shiver down his spine. Being taken out of it was worse, like he was fighting through a thick sludge, bone tired and so weak that he could barely move. He never wanted to experience that again.

Allura had offered to escort him back to the castle, but Lance insisted upon visiting the shield base with the rest of the crew. After all, it was part of their duty as paladins, and Lance had no intention of leaving until the job was complete.

Which is probably honestly why he's so tired now. The Galras at the base had talked for what felt like decapheebs, and then Lotor wanted a briefing on the whole shebang.

So finally, completely exhausted and ready to give out, Lance made his way to his room.

He stumbled through the vast halls of the castle, his mind wandering through a sea of foggy memories the day had left him with. The journey to his door took a couple dobashes longer than usual, thus he gave a deep sigh when he got there.

"About time," he muttered to himself. He pushed the button for the door to slide open and began to enter.

"Lance?"

The young man turned around drowsily. "Hm?" It took a moment for his sleepy eyes to register what he was seeing, but when they did, he blinked. "Pidge? What's wrong?"

She looked…off. Her eyes were cast down, and they looked glassy. The tip of her nose was red, her clothing was all rumpled, and she was fidgeting with her hands. Wait…had she been crying?

Pidge's arms came to wrap around herself. "Hey, Lance," she greeted softly.

His head tilted. "You didn't answer the question, Pidge."

She gave an awkward little smile, but it quickly faded. "Y-Yeah, I was just, uh…" she swallowed. "I wanted to talk to you…about, um, something."

"Well make it quick," he joked, managing a smirk. "This paladin wants to go to bed."

Pidge nodded, then squirmed. "Um, well…I know what happened today."

Lance's heart skipped a beat. "What do you mean?" he laughed. They could both hear how forced it sounded.

For the first time in their conversation, Pidge's eyes met his. Lance's heart twisted at how sad they looked. "I found out through the mice," she admitted. "I guess Allura told them about it, and…all I want to know is why you didn't tell us."

He raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"You didn't tell us," Pidge repeated, now crossing her arms angrily. "You— you died, Lance, and you didn't think that—" her voice cut off, and a tear ran down her face. "You didn't think we needed to know?"

Lance felt shocked. He always knew that his fellow paladins cared about him— they were his friends, after all. But…he didn't know that one of them would react like this.

He stepped forward, reaching a hand out. "Pidge, I—"

"You can't just do that!" she exclaimed. More tears were falling down, and she hastened to wipe them away. "You mean too much to me to go through something like that and think you should keep it a secret!"

Lance's heart warmed, and without another thought, he opened his arms. Pidge came forward and sank into the embrace. He held her tight, murmuring apologies as he ran a comforting hand up and down her back.

After a few minutes, Pidge sniffed loudly. "Don't you dare do that again," she commanded. Her voice was raw with emotion, but the tone of an unspoken threat was still there.

He chuckled. "Or what?"

She stepped back to gave him a teary smile, and for some reason, Lance's heart rate quickened. "Or I'll come down to hell and drag you back up again."

He guffawed. "Excuse me, why don't you think I'll go to heaven?!"

Pidge let out a loud laugh. "Just a feeling," she teased.

An embarrassed blush crossed his cheeks. "Ha, ha, very funny," he grumbled. "So…can I go to sleep now?"

Pidge opened her mouth to answer, but after a second decided to reach forward and grab him in another embrace. "One more hug," she mumbled into his shirt. He squeezed her reassuringly, and she nuzzled her cheek into his chest. A butterfly fluttered in his stomach.

"F-Feeling better?" he stuttered.

Another moment passed before she sighed, "Yeah, I guess so."

Lance swallowed. "Good…so…you gonna let go?"

All she did was clutch onto his jacket tighter. "A few more minutes, please."

Lance found that he was (strangely enough) more than willing to comply with that request.