You're Cute When You Smile

If one more cable shocked Pidge, she was going to throw the thing out into space and blow it up with her Green Lion.

For hours on end without any breaks, she worked on a new piece of technology that they confiscated from the Galra ship remains they found floating in space. And apparently space technology comes with attitude because she swore this thing wanted to piss her off as much as possible.

"Wow. I haven't seen you this upset with Galra technology since you had to reprogram that robot to work for us." Lance stated as the Green Paladin turned her head around to see her teammate leaning over her.

Pidge gave a deep sigh, "I'm sick of space tech already. And that's a statement I never thought I'd make in my entire life."

"Really? Then this little baby must be really rubbing you the wrong way. You haven't made any progress at all?" The Blue Paladin inquired with a tilt of his head.

The young Paladin shook her head, "I've tried EVERYTHING and nothing is working, it's driving me insane."

"Well I'm sure you'll crack it eventually. You always do with your skills." Lance encouraged her with a smile. "You've adapted more to alien tech than the rest of us."

Lance sat down next to her and now she was up to his shoulder in height, "Can I get a closer look?"

"Knock yourself out." Pidge replied with a sly grin on her face, she wanted the Blue Paladin to get shocked so badly by the wires.

Lance inspected the piece of technology with the curiosity of a child. He was looking at every angle of the Galra tech and was fascinated by Pidge's so called "failed progress". She managed to get it WORKING again after being fried according to Coran and now she was having trouble getting it to give up information. Despite being the smallest of their team and not the strongest fighter, Pidge was smarter than any of them and Lance knew not to question her intelligence.

"I think there's a couple wires loose here that should be put back in." Lance finally stated as he reached his fingers toward the open wires.

Pidge tried her best to keep the smile off her face as he slowly gripped the wires. Her wish had been granted.

"YOWZA!" The Blue Paladin yelped with pain as a quick jolt of electricity raced through his body. He fell backward and slammed onto the ground with a comedic thud.

The Green Paladin lost it as she laughed so hard that she was almost on the ground herself. Just seeing the look on his face made her feel better and even though she was having the worst day ever earlier, her teammate made her feel better within a matter of seconds.

"You knew that was going to happen didn't you?" Lance accused her as he got up slowly with a twitching eye, his face was slightly red and Pidge couldn't tell if he was actually smoking a little from the shock. But his hair stood up from the jolt and that made him look like he just got out of bed.

Pidge put her hands up in defense, "I told you this space tech has attitude."

"But you didn't stop me from touching the wires!"

"I didn't think you were dumb enough to touch exposed wires to begin with."

The two Paladins stared at each other for a long period of silence until they couldn't hold back their laughter anymore. Together they laughed and giggled about what just happened to the point where they were tearing up a little.

"You know Pidge, you should teach me some of this tech stuff when you get the chance." Lance commented as he stretched his arms wide and long.

Pidge looked at him like he just spoke in a foreign language, "What?"

"Don't give me that look! I'm actually curious about this stuff and I wanna learn, is that so bad?" The Blue Paladin asked with pouted lips.

The Green Paladin wiped away a fake tear from the corner of her eye, "Oh my god you actually want to learn something new! I wish I had a camera for this moment because this is one for the memory books."

"Forget I said anything." Lance replied coldly, he turned away and got up to walk out of the room.

She couldn't let him walk out sulking about this silly situation for the rest of the day, so Pidge got up from her seat and grabbed his wrist to stop him. "I'm sorry, don't take what I said as insulting! It's just that you surprised me with your sudden interest that's all."

"Yeah?"

"Honestly."

Lance turned his head and gave her a soft smile, making Pidge's heart race a little in her chest for a reason she didn't know. "So were you actually worried about my feelings?"

"I was worried that you were going to pout all day. That's all, nothing more and nothing less." Pidge replied with a slight blush to her cheeks. She hated when he teased her like this, it was so irritating.

But her teammate didn't let her off the hook that easily, "Really? That's all huh?"

"What're you getting at?"

"You tell me."

Now it was a contest of who could outstare who to see who would cave in first. And the worst part was they didn't even have a judge to declare a winner.

"You can't keep this up all day Pidge, I'm the reigning champion of staring contests. You can't beat my record." Lance taunted with a smile as he walked up to her so they were only inches apart.

It was like staring up at a statue, "I think you're about to lose your crown then."

"I don't think so."

Lance leaned his head down closer to hers and brought his hand around her waist to bring her closer to his body. Pidge had no clue what he was doing and was absolutely shocked by how gentle his hand was around her despite also keeping her firmly in his grasp.

Now they were literally only a few inches away from practically kissing, Lance finally gave her a soft smile that made her mind go blank.

"You know, you're cuter when you smile." Lance stated simply as he gave her a wink.

The Green Paladin was speechless by this sudden comment and looked at him with lightly blushing cheeks. And unfortunately for her, she blinked so hard that she felt her glasses loosen on her face.

"Guess I win." Lance declared with victory as he separated the two of them and did a little jig.

Pidge didn't have the words to make a snarky remark. So she just stood there and watched him dance his stupid dance without any commentary whatsoever.

"I'll see you back in the main hall, good luck on your tech project." Lance said as he turned his heel and walked to the door to exit.

Finally getting herself out of her surprised state of mine, Pidge clenched her fist softly and shouted at him. "I demand a do over!"

"Maybe next time Pidge, but do you really wanna do that?" Lance replied softly, making Pidge even more flustered as he turned his head around and gave her a wink.

Why was her heart beating so fast? Why was her body remembering the touch of his hand like it was the greatest feeling in the world? And why was she suddenly hoping nobody could see her blushing face?

Lance left her in the room with space tech full of attitude and a confused brain scrambling around to figure out what the heck happened and why her heart was melting with emotion.