Day Three: Sacrifice

Pidge limped her way away from the Galra ship she and Hunk had just struggled to take out, doing her best to keep up with her fellow paladin. Every step – every movement – sent a fresh wave of agony spreading down her left leg, originating from a wound on her thigh.

There was no time to stop. There would be more Galra ships on the way and neither had the firepower to handle the onslaught on their own.

Hunk glanced back at her and slowed down until she was next to him. "Pidge, you're limping."

She forced herself to smile in an attempt to ward off his worry, but it ended up as more of a grimace. "I'm fine. It barely hurts."

Hunk didn't buy it for a tick. He stepped in front of her, forcing her to stop, and then effortlessly scooped her up in his arms, cradling her bridal style. After that, he started moving again, determined to put as much distance between them and the Galra as he could.

"Hunk, put me down!" Pidge demanded. "I said I was fine. That means I can walk!"

"No," Hunk refused. "You're hurt, Pidge. If you keep walking on it, you might hurt yourself even worse! Please, let me help you."

All of the fight drained from her as she looked up at him. The amount of worry and care in his voice struck a chord within her, as it always did. She chose to ignore the fluttery feeling in her chest as she wrapped her arms around his neck, giving him a little help in holding her up.

Hunk carefully adjusted his hold on her so he wouldn't hit her injury and then hastened his walking pace. His partner's claims that she was fine only made his worry worse. He wouldn't feel better about anything until they reached the rendezvous point where they were supposed to meet up with Lance and Keith. Even though it would be several vargas before their friends came for them.

He pressed on, unusually quiet considering he normally couldn't stop talking whenever there was something bothering him. He could feel her soft breath against his neck and, every now and then, could hear a quiet whimper of pain. Pidge didn't need his nervous chatter. She needed medical attention.

"Just hold on," he said quietly.

The rendezvous point was the ruins of a long-forgotten civilization, of which all that remained was the sturdy, stone buildings. Most of them were little more than rubble or solitary columns rising toward the sky, but there were some that provided a little more cover.

Hunk picked the most structurally stable of the buildings and carried Pidge inside, where he set her down in the shade along the far wall. He sat in front of her and began to search through the pockets of his vest in hopes of finding something that could serve as a bandage.

"How many vargas out are Lance and Keith?"

Pidge's question was so quiet, Hunk almost didn't hear it. He slowed down in his search as he thought it over, trying to calculate how long they'd been walking. "Two? Or maybe three?"

She breathed out heavily and leaned back against the wall. "Okay."

Hunk patted down his last few pockets, finding only some lint, and began to wonder how practical it would be to cut his clothing into strips of fabric. Pidge would be against it, of course, but the dark stain along the side of her shorts told him that things were more serious than she was letting on. Carrying her had helped, but it wasn't enough.

He reached up to run a hand through his hair, which was when he encountered his headband.

"Pidge, I need to take a look at your leg," Hunk said as he deftly untied the strip of orange cloth.

She took one look at what he was doing and tried to pull away. "Hunk, no! Look, it's fine. Seriously. The others will be here soon, they'll stick me in a pod, and I'll be fine."

"I should have wrapped it earlier, but there was no time. Now, there is," Hunk argued.

"But your nana gave you that!"

"Pidge." Hunk reached out and gently cupped her cheek, forcing her to meet his eyes. "You mean more to me than some piece of cloth."

Tha-thump.

Pidge swore she could hear the sound of her own heartbeat. Just when she thought she was getting her dumb crush under control, he had to go and say a thing like that. Once again, she found herself giving into his request without putting up a fight.

Days later, once they were all safe and sound back on the Castle of Lions and Pidge was back to full health, she tracked Hunk down in the kitchens, where he was going through his weekly routine of trying to bake cookies with the various foodstuffs they encountered away from Earth. She cleared her throat to let him know she was there and was then greeted by one of his bright smiles.

"You're just in time! I'm just about to take out the first batch. I swear this will be better than the scultrite cookies. And the food goo cookies. And... basically every cookie I've tried to make on this ship, now that I think about it." Hunk gave a puzzled look at the oven. "Do you think there's some part of it's programming that's out to ruin my food? It has been a while since the last Castle malfunction..."

"Actually, I have something for you," Pidge said, nervously shifting her feet. She knew she had no reason to worry. Hunk was one of her dearest friends and, unlike Lance, he wouldn't tease her about her sentimental gift.

Hunk looked curious. "What is it?"

Pidge removed a small package from the pocket of her new pair of gray cargo pants and held it out to him. She repressed a shiver of pleasure as his fingertips brushed her hand when he accepted the gift. Pidge could barely dare to watch as he unwrapped the brown packaging to reveal a strip of long green fabric.

"It's to replace the old one. You know, since you sacrificed your old one for me," Pidge softly explained. She hesitated a moment before adding on: "It's from my old sweatshirt. The one I wore when we first came to space."

Hunk's gorgeous brown eyes met hers, wide with shock. "For me?"

Pidge rubbed the back of her neck. "Well, yeah. I know it meant a lot to you and—eep!" She cut herself off with a squeak as he rushed forward and enveloped her in a tight hug, sweeping her off her feet.

"Thank you," Hunk murmured into her hair. "I love it."

Pidge relaxed into his embrace and let herself enjoy the moment.