Snuggling Away Insomnia

Pidge could hardly feel her legs as she finally sat down after their intense training exercise, it was like she ran a hundred miles consistently without a break. Her fellow Paladins weren't in any better condition, their faces were covered in sweat and she swore Keith had somehow managed to obtain a scratch on his left cheek.

"That was more intense than the Garrison boot camp the pilots had to go through back on Earth!" Lance exclaimed, nonchalantly taking off his shirt in front of them to air himself out.

Hunk could only make grunts of agreement as he was downing his water bottle, he had almost passed out during their running exercise but managed to keep going despite himself.

Keith shrugged his shoulders, "I don't remember if I got kicked out before or after that."

"We did great today, but we should try to beat our time from this day forward. Even though this training routine is tough, we're sticking with it until our next move on Zarkon." Shiro stated as he brought a towel up to his head to wipe the sweat away.

Everyone looked at their leader like he grew an extra head, "You mean to tell me that we're going to be doing this training exercise EVERY SINGLE DAY?" Lance asked after finally putting his shirt back on.

"Yes Lance. We are, we need to sharpen our abilities and enhance our reflexes. And that requires us to push ourselves over our limits in order to grow. I don't like it as much as you do but it's the only way we can prepare ourselves for whatever comes our way." Shiro replied as he walked up to the Blue Paladin and placed his hand on his shoulder.

Lance looked up at him and gave a defeated sigh. There was no use trying to argue with Shiro, it was like trying to argue against his dad back home.

"Paladins, you all did very well today." Allura called out as she entered the room. When she saw how tired they were, she brought out a bag of blue rocks in front of them that looked like small marbles.

Hunk raised his eyebrow, "What're those?"

"These are supplements I've created in order to help you get the nutrients you've been missing back on Earth. Thanks to Pidge's insight and notes, we've been able to create these for you for your workouts." Allura stated as she passed them out to everyone.

Keith looked at the blue small marble with skepticism, "Did you taste test this?"

"I've already tried it Keith, it's perfectly safe and we made it so it actually taste like candy." Pidge stated as she took hers without hesitation.

Everyone followed in her lead and ate the supplements, Hunk melted at the taste and everyone had a look of surprise to realize that Pidge was actually telling the truth about them.

"So what've you been up to while we've been training Princess?" Shiro asked as he sat down next to Pidge, finally allowing himself to unwind.

Allura looked in his direction with a soft smile, "I've been busy trying to gather resources before we move from this planet to our next destination. We need to stock up on some of the supplies that we've been running low on and thankfully the leader of this world was kind enough to give us all the time we need."

"But we shouldn't abuse that time by staying here." Coran stated as he entered the room covered in grease from fixing some of the machines on the ship. "I'm almost done with the repairs, so we should be on our way by tomorrow. So unfortunately you'll have to do your training inside tomorrow in our training room."

Everyone tried their best not to show Shiro how relieved they were to hear that. But it was hard not to when you just got done with the workout from hell.

"Well if you'll excuse me, I need to go wash up and get into some new clothes. I'm starting to really stink over here and my brain is screaming for a nap." Lance declared as he made his way to the door with outstretched arms.

Hunk got up from his seat and followed behind, "I second that."

"I'll wash up later, I wanna go out and explore before we leave tomorrow." Keith said as he grabbed his jacket and walked out the door.

Shiro walked up to Coran, "You need any help with the repairs?"

"I'm always looking for help." Coran replied with a smile, "How about you Pidge? Wanna come with us, we could use your expertise."

Pidge shook her head, "Sorry Coran but I think I wanna go wash up first and relax my muscles a little bit before I do anything."

"You can use my washroom Pidge." Allura said as she grabbed the Green Paladin's hand. "Considering Hunk and Lance are using the other washroom."

Pidge smiled at her Princess, "Thanks Allura."

So everyone went their separate ways for a while, Pidge went to wash up in Allura's amazing bathroom that would put every hotel to shame and got into a fresh pair of clothes that still felt warm from drying. Keith must've been out for hours because he came back covered in dirt and even rougher than before, so he went straight to bed after washing up. Hunk went straight to the kitchen to fetch himself something to eat while Lance sat in the meeting hall with his music to unwind from the long day. Shiro retired for the night after not being able to keep his eyes open, so Hunk had to help him get to his room to sleep.

That just left Pidge and Lance in the same room with Allura weaving together a brand new pattern she was working on for some secret project she refused to talk about.

"How was your shower? Refreshing?" Pidge asked Lance as she leaned on the couch with a deep sigh.

Lance smiled, "It was exactly what I needed after a long day. How was yours?"

"Fine. I'm just happy to be clean again." Pidge replied with her own smile.

Allura stretched as she gathered her cloth and turned towards her Paladins with a tired face of her own, she must've been tired from gathering materials all day while they were out training.

"I'm going to be retiring in my room for the night, I'll see you all in the morning. Don't stay up too late." Allura said as she made her way to the door.

Lance and Pidge were practically in sync: "Goodnight."

So now the only ones who were awake and still active were Lance and Pidge. As they sat in silence for what seemed like a record time with Lance in the room, Pidge finally got up and stretched while giving a impressive yawn.

"You going to bed Pidge?" Lance asked.

Pidge turned towards him and shrugged her shoulders, "I can't fall asleep that easily."

"Why not?"

"I have insomnia."

"What's that?"

Pidge sighed as she shook her head, of course Lance didn't know what insomnia was. "Insomnia is the inability to sleep. I suffer from Primary Insomnia because of my very active imagination and the fact that my brain won't shut up."

"Really? Then why don't I have insomnia?" Lance pondered as he scratched his head, "My brain won't shut up no matter what I do."

Pidge raised her eyebrow, "Wow. I didn't even know your brain was active at all."

"Ha ha very funny." Lance replied, sticking his tongue out at her like a child.

But even though Pidge said that, she did feel rather tired for someone who hasn't been able to sleep right since they came to space. Before she knew it, she was wobbling on her feet.

"Hey!" Lance called out as Pidge's legs gave way and she started to fall to the ground. He caught her just before she hit the floor."Suffer from insomnia my foot. You're going to bed."

So Lance picked her up bridal style and made his way towards her room, he opened the door and laid his teammate onto her bed and covered her with her blanket.

But before Lance could leave the room, he felt a tug at his shirt. He looked down to realize that Pidge was holding him back.

"What?"

"Stay with me for a little bit. I'm not ready to fall asleep yet."

"...OK." Lance replied, sitting himself by her bedside and making himself comfortable.

He didn't know if his eyes were playing tricks on him, but it almost looked like Pidge was blushing. Maybe her cheeks were still flushed from their long workout.

"So...why don't you tell me what you did before you joined Garrison?" Lance asked as he looked at her with curiosity, "Before you cut your hair and decided to go by Pidge Gunderson."

Pidge's eyes widened and Lance realized that he probably shouldn't have mentioned that. But to his surprise, Pidge began to smile.

"I broke into the Garrison several times into my dad's old office. I didn't believe that he and my brother died from a simple accident. Because they weren't the type of people to miss a life threatening detail like that." Pidge replied as she closed her eyes. "My mom didn't know I was doing it at the time because she was too busy getting the memorials ready for them since she didn't have the bodies to burry."

Hearing Pidge talk about her mother preparing memorials sent shivers down Lance's spine and made his skin turn cold. What if HIS family thought he was dead? Would they be preparing a memorial service for him too?

"After I joined, I only had one mission: to find my family and bring them back home. Even if that meant stealing a ship and traveling out into space to do it myself. But after rescuing Shiro and traveling into space on the Blue Lion, that mission has been put on the back burner. Now I gotta save the entire UNIVERSE with you guys. Funny how things get complicated like that." Pidge continued chuckling softly.

Lance laughed with her, "I get what you mean. I didn't expect to be saving the universe, I just thought I was going to become the greatest pilot of all time and maybe have a little friendly competition with Keith along the way."

"But he got expelled by the time you became a pilot."

"I know."

After a moment of silence between them, Pidge made a request that caught Lance completely off guard. "Can I hug you for a while?"

"What?" Lance looked at her like she began speaking in another language all together.

Pidge blushed, "Get over yourself. Don't make me repeat what I said."

"Yeah OK sure, but that threw me off guard." Lance admitted honestly, "You're not the physical affection type. At least I didn't think you were."

Pidge gave him a quick glare before admitting, "It's just that...you remind me so much of my brother but yet you guys are polar opposites. I don't know how to describe it."

"That's high praise coming from you." Lance remarked chuckling unintentionally. But he followed through with her request and laid on her bed so he could hug her in a more comfortable position. He hadn't realized how small she actually was and chastised himself for being the last one to discover she was a girl this entire time.

Pidge wrapped her arms around his waist and snuggled herself closer to him, "Thanks".

"Anytime."

"Just don't tell the others about this or I swear I'll end you."

"Deal."

So they stayed like that for the longest time until finally he felt her grip began to lighten around him and he realized that she was finally falling asleep.

But he didn't dare move away until he was sure that she was asleep. So he stayed wrapped around her for a little while longer, fighting away the urge to fall asleep himself. Minutes went by and he realized that fighting away sleep was a fruitless battle and began to let himself fall asleep as well.

"No problem...I'll just wake up before she does and I'll get out of dodge. No problem at all..." Lance thought to himself as his eye lids became heavy. He snuggled Pidge closer to him and began to let himself float away.

But before he lost consciousness he heard Pidge whisper, "Thank you Lance."

"You're welcome Pidge." he whispered back. And with that, they fell asleep together on her bed. Embraced in a way that would keep Pidge's insomnia at bay.