A/N: Hello! This is my first story on here, please let me know if you enjoy it! This one is a one-shot of Pidge/Lance, and while it is meant to be romantic, it can also just be seen as friendship. Mostly fluff, with a little bit of angst (I couldn't help myself). Enjoy!

Lance shoved off his sleeping mask and turned over in bed to check the clock.

12:44 AM

He groaned. While he was a far cry from being an insomniac, Lance would have those occasional nights where his brain would refuse to shut up. Apparently, strenuous and exhausting Voltron training didn't cancel out hyper active minds. He squeezed his eyes tight, then focused on relaxing his face, relaxing his entire body. He tried to clear his mind while taking long, deep breaths. He was sinking into the mattress. He was relaxed. He was just going to sit here for as long as it took to fall into a deep sleep. He was… still wide awake. An eternity later, he chanced another peek at the clock.

12:46

"That's it," he grumbled, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and fumbling into his lion slippers.

This was his first sleepless night in the castle. At home, he would normally remedy his sleeplessness by binge-watching a show with some snacks to keep him company, and at the Garrison he could sneak out of the compound for a picnic in the middle of nowhere, staring at the stars. But this was an enormous, battle-ready castle in outer space. He needed a new game plan.

Fortunately, there was one intergalactic solution to nearly any problem: food. With a grumbling stomach, Lance wandered into the kitchens for some late night snacks. In one cupboard he found something that looked like the alien equivalent of potato chips, probably something Hunk had been perfecting. A little greenish for his liking, but at least they tasted alright.

He could really go for some company right now, but every sane person on the ship would be asleep.

Pidge! He thought. Pidge never sleeps. But she might want some of the chips…

"Worth it," he mumbled, turning on his heel and heading to Green's hanger, a grin spreading across his face. Any excuse to hang with Pidge was good enough for him.

His grin widened as he rounded the last corner to see the hanger lights shining through the crack under the door. Called it, he smiled, stuffing a handful of chips into his face and pushing open the door. Geez, what a workaholic.

"Yo, Pigeon!" He whisper-shouted, sticking his head in and scanning the room. Her glasses were on the workbench so she couldn't be far, but she wasn't visible at first glance. Maybe she went to the bathroom? He checked around Green, behind the workbench, even under the workbench, before scanning the hangar one last time.

Well, more chips for me, he thought with a grimace. He was still trying to shrug off his disappointment when something caught his eye - the grill for an air vent sat propped up against the wall. No way. He smiled widely once more as he tiptoed over and peered inside. There was Pidge, a good ten feet inside the vent, curled up in a ball where three other ducts came together. Her heavy breathing barely met his ears as it resonated softly through the vent. Lance snickered, poking his head and shoulders into the vent.

"Pidge! Hey Pidge, wanna watch a movie with me?"

Nothing.

"Pidge!" He whispered a little louder, rapping his knuckles on the metal. She only groaned and turned over on her side, her back now facing him. How can she even move? He wondered. That space is tiny!

Sticking his fingers in his mouth, he gave a short, high whistle. It came out much louder than he intended and the shrill noise vibrated harshly against the cold metal. Lance could only guess that Pidge had slammed her head into the ceiling of the air vent, mostly because he'd just done the same thing.

"Agh!" Pidge exclaimed, rubbing her forehead as she turned on her side to face Lance with wide eyes. "What's going on? Are the Galra attacking? Is Hunk stuck in the fridge again? What… what are you doing, Lance?"

Lance was, in fact, on his knees and rubbing the stinging spot on the back of his head.

"No need to get your tech in a twist, Pidge," Lance laughed, wincing. "I just can't sleep. Wanted to know if you'd like a rare chance to see a movie alone with the Spectacular Lance."

Pidge scoffed. "I was already having a great time sleeping, thank you very much," she replied loftily, clambering out of the vent. "This particular spot is like bed-away-from-bed."

"Yeah, right," Lance chuckled as he stood up and grabbed her hand to help her out. "It looked an awful lot like you were just lonely. Did you miss me?" He added, wiggling his eyebrows.

"You wish," she scoffed, yawning and slapping him as soon as she had scampered out of the vent. Lance snickered in response as they walked back towards the workbench, brushing some stray strands of hair out of her face. She looked really cute like that, with her hair flattened on one side.

"Gimme some chips," she yawned once more, reaching for a handful before going to her desk and putting on her glasses. Normally she would have blushed at his touch, but in her half asleep state, she could only think of how nice it felt.

"Hey, those are mi- Hey hey, what are you doing?" Lance interrupted himself, whining as she opened her computer. "I said I wanted you to watch a movie with me!" He indignantly put his chin on the edge of her workbench, giving her his best pouty face.

"No can do, beanpole," Pidge muttered, hiding a smile as she shooed him out of her work area.

"But you literally work non-stop," Lance complained as he moved to a farther corner of the table. "Don't you ever take a break?"

"I just had one," she replied. Truth be told, she could easily call it a night. The upgrade she was working on wasn't critical, but she liked testing Lance to see how he'd react. It was by far her favorite experiment to perform. "I'm fully rested now, so shoo," she added, making sweeping gestures with her hands.

"Fine," he huffed, standing up to his full height and crossing his arms. "Then you leave me no choice."

Before Pidge could ask what he meant, Lance had snatched her up in his arms bridal style and darted out the room.

"Night, Green!" He called out over Pidge's surprised shriek. The shock of Lance holding her so close to his body as he sprinted down the hallway caused her to blush for real.

"Oh my gosh Lance, STOP! Put me down!" Her voice was noticeably shaking, from nervousness, laughter, or just the movement, neither could tell. She reached up her right arm to grasp his neck while her free hand pounded his chest, but he just chuckled and didn't slow down. This felt so weird. It was uncomfortable and annoying, being so vulnerable. But he was so warm and was holding her so close, and so help her, if she started sweating profusely in his arms she'd never get over it.

"LAAAN-"

"Shhhh!" He whispered as he pressed a finger to her lips and slowed to a trot near the communal room. Pidge silently cursed his long arms and crossed her own shorter ones vehemently. Maybe, just maybe, her stupid blushing cheeks would make her look angry instead of flushed.

"Someone's gonna hear us!" Lance whispered conspiratorially. Pidge was about to say that they were far enough from the bedrooms that no one would notice, but stopped when she glanced up and saw the childish delight in his eyes. He wanted to keep it a secret and so help her, she couldn't spoil his innocent fun, especially with that goofy, gleeful smile on his face.

"Okay fine, I'll watch your dumb movie," she huffed in an attempt to cover her smirk as he set her gently down on the couch. "But first let me get changed and grab a blanket."

"You mean I ran all the way down here for nothing?" Lance smirked right back as he headed to the kitchen for more snacks.

"Not for nothing," Pidge muttered as she rolled her eyes and jogged to her room. She had no plans to protest being held in Lance's arms. Or at least, to protest and actually mean it.

By the time she came back Lance had prepared another junk food snack Hunk had developed to feel like popcorn, fizzy drinks Coran had suggested for the paladin's soda fixes, and the sweets Allura had tried to stash where no one else would find them. Pidge dragged her blanket to the sofa and dropped it over Lance before plopping down next to him, keeping a little distance between them. She didn't want to give him the wrong idea, or get closer than he was comfortable with. His gaze was intent on the screen as he quickly flipped through the film selection.

"Ooh ooh, wait, stop! Go back a couple!" Pidge exclaimed, lunging across him to steal the remote and click back to the movie that had caught her eye.

"What, this one?" He grimaced at the title card of two aliens staring dramatically off into the distance, with flowers that looked remarkably like cherry blossoms fluttering down around them. "It looks pretty sappy, Pidge. I thought you liked action movies."

"I do, I do, but this one looked visually amazing. I passed by while Allura was watching the last couple of minutes of it."

"Was she out like a light?"

Pidge puffed her cheeks out in response, but Lance just laughed and shrugged it off. "Hey, if I'm lucky it'll put me to sleep," he smiled at her as he stole the remote back, clicked play, and slung an arm around her shoulder. "Why are you so far away? This blanket isn't THAT big Pidge." He gently nudged her closer, and she leaned in without a second thought.

This isn't normal, her mind so helpfully announced.

When he was running with her in his arms, she didn't have a choice.

Now she was willingly scootching closer till she was nearly snuggled up against him.

What am I DOING?

He nonchalantly pulled the blanket so it wrapped around them both and Pidge just tried her best to breathe, trying to keep herself from leaning against him fully.

Lance chuckled, trying to play off his own red cheeks. "Tense much?" He asked, tousling her hair. "Come on, ease up a bit. It's just me!"

"Sorry," Pidge smiled nervously, suppressing the urge to crack a joke and move away from him. Slowly, carefully, she let herself relax until her head rested fully on his chest and her shoulders weren't so rigid. She breathed in, then out. This was so comfortable. Too comfortable, she silently reminded herself. Luckily, that voice was easy to ignore, and after a few minutes her pulse slowed down, allowing her to actually notice the events unfolding on the screen.

At the very least, she hadn't missed much at all – it quickly became apparent that dumb and wacky rom-com plot lines transcended both millennia and interplanetary culture. The visuals were beautiful though, and in her current mental state, she wouldn't have been able to follow a complicated storyline anyhow. Lance, on the other hand, just kept fidgeting.

"Hey, Pidge?"

"Yeah?"

"This movie sucks."

"Yeah, but the effects are still amazing. I wonder what the Altean equivalent of CGI is? Maybe they used holograms to make it look so real. Wait," She sat up with a start. "What if they're NOT using special effects at all?"

"You're such a freaking nerd," Lance laughed, "You know, most people put on a movie to relax, not to figure out how it was made."

"Sounds boring as all get out," Pidge smirked.

Lance chuckled, tilting his head back. "But seriously, you wanna keep watching this garbage?"

"I mean granted, the plot is as boring as they come - I mean, I stopped paying attention before I even started - but you've gotta admit, the effects really are fascinating."

"Pidge, I'm gonna be straight with you, this is just getting ridiculous," Lance mumbled, leaning his head on the back of the couch and tossing a sweet into his mouth. "They're an alien species and even I can tell they're bad actors."

"Well…" Pidge carefully turned her eyes back to the screen, eyebrows furrowed in thought. "Let's keep watching but stop listening."

"And just sit in silence?"

"Well, we don't have to sit in silence, dummy."

"Then what are we gonna do Pidge?" Lance whined. "I'm so booored."

"Then just… tell me a story."

"What?"

Pidge tensed up. She hadn't meant to ask that, the question had popped out of her mouth before she could think it over.

"Just… you know… a story from your childhood," she quickly improvised. "It was only ever me and Matt when I was little and you had lots of siblings. I'm sure you all had some interesting times. Tell me about them."

"About my early life, huh? Okay." Pidge silently sighed in relief as he leaned forward, catching her eyes with an impish glance. "So, once upon a time, there was this utterly amazing and incredibly handso-"

"Laaaance," she grumbled in response.

"Okay, for reals now. So, once when I was about five, two of my big brothers and sisters-"

"Which ones?"

"Henry and Olivia." He grinned. "They had the most… umm… personality, so if I ever mention big brothers and sisters in my childhood memories it's probably those two."

"Fascinating. So are they where you get your," she tilted her head down and raised her eyebrows, "'personality?'"

Lance gave her a look of mock annoyance. "Can I go on now?"

"Proceed, my loyal servant."

He scoffed at her lofty tone and she nudged him on with her elbow, chuckling.

"So anyway, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted," he continued with a fake grimace that dissolved Pidge into laughter.

"Henry and Olivia had convinced me when I was little that if you caught a frog, a worm, and a snail in the rain, brought them into the kitchen, and said a spell from Harry Potter, all the animals would eventually be swapped for a limited-edition action figure that would magically appear in the sink."

Pidge shook her head and bit back her laughter; he had only begun his tale, but this was already too much.

"And you believed them?" She demanded once she caught her breath.

"Hey! I was like, five!" he protested.

"Oh my gosh Lance," she giggled, wiping her eyes, "but I was right, the horrible pranks and BSing are hereditary."

"Excuse you my pranks are fabulous, I can BS incredibly, and they were twelve."

"Where did you even find all these creatures?" Pidge asked.

"I lived right next to a huge park." Lance shook his head, reminiscing with a laugh. "I thought it was a forest. So I'd just hop the fence any time it was raining and explore. Hey, what about you? You didn't grow up with the outdoors?"

"I always hated getting dirty and being around all those insects. It's a nice idea but I even when I was little I preferred programming and computer tech to going outside any day. Besides, I lived in the suburbs. I was lucky if I saw a bird out the window every other week."

Lance laughed. "Fair enough. Anyways, my siblings' BS wasn't even the best part of the story. See, my mom, oh my gosh she HATES frogs." He grinned. "Snakes, she's okay with, but bugs and frogs? You wouldn't believe how much they freak her out."

"Oh no." Pidge laughed, hands flying up to cover her face.

"Yeah, exactly. So I found one of each - only the very best of course - dumped them onto the kitchen table, and yelled 'expelliarmus!' And when no action figures appeared, did I realize 'oh, my brother and sister are having a little joke at my expense?' No!"

He was leaning forward to catch Pidge's full reaction, and her attention was all on him. "Little baby Lance that I was, my first thought was 'guess I'd better find another set.' So I dug out my plastic pail from the toy box and hopped over the fence to grab every single frog, snail, and worm I could find because OBVIOUSLY, the spell wasn't working cause I didn't have enough."

Pidge had pulled her knees up to her chest and was rocking back and forth, grinning, one hand over her heart. "Oh my gosh Lance, no!"
"And not only that, I started putting those critters in every nook and cranny in the kitchen I could get my grubby little hands on. I put them in the clean cups, in the dishwasher we used as a drying rack, in the oven; I think I even managed to get one in the spice cabinet. Of course, the frogs didn't stay still, so they were just hopping everywhere they pleased and I was I running around frantically trying to keep them in the kitchen and shouting every Harry Potter spell I can remember."

By this time Pidge was nearly falling off the couch with laughter, more at Lance's animated storytelling than the actual story.

"So just then my mom comes downstairs and sees little old me, my eyes as wide as if I was caught with my hand was in the cookie jar, covered from head to toe in mud, trashing her kitchen, and SURROUNDED by all the creatures she hates. She screamed and gosh, I've never heard her scream like that before or since. She yelled 'Qué mierda mijo?! Are you loco?!'" Lance modulated his voice several octaves up and added a thick Spanish accent. "I was so scared, I was freaking out that I'd get la chancla. Geez Pidge are you alright? I know I'm funny but dang, girl!"

Pidge had fallen flat on her back with her head on Lance's lap, clutching a pillow to her chest and kicking into the couch, her giggling completely out of control.

"Your impression of your mother," she gasped, "I didn't know how much I needed that in my life."

"Oh, in that case, I have a world of stories to tell you." Lance grinned. "Any time you're feeling down or bored, come to your friendly, neighborhood court jester Lance."

"But you're going to have to explain la chancla. I thought it was just a meme," she giggled, calming down a bit.

"The sandal," Lance said, grimacing. "Believe it or not, it's an actual thing. The worst form of punishment in our household, actually."

"For us, it was the belt. My parents never actually used it," she added hastily as Lance raised his eyebrows, "usually the threat of the belt was enough to get Matt and me to shut up."

"Same with la chancla." Lance nodded, "I still don't know why it's so terrifying but I tried my best to avoid it."

"But what happened with all the frogs?" Pidge asked, sitting up. "Were you punished?"

"Nah, mamá figured out pretty quick that Henry and Olivia had put me up to it, so they got to clean up the whole mess."

"Did you ever play that sort of trick on your little siblings?"

Lance gave a quick burst of laughter. "Oh there are plenty of good stories there, but those are stories for another day."

"Mhmm, and you're definitely not trying to avoid the question, are you?" Pidge asked, poking him in the ribs with a skeptical glance.

"Hey, I've talked enough, it's your turn," Lance smirked. "So tell me, exactly how blissfully quiet was it with just you and Matt in the house?"

"Hah!" Pidge threw her head back into Lance's shoulder. "That's hilarious. We were crazy kids, there was like, zero silence when we were together."

"But I thought you two nerds just sat quietly and programmed for fun."

"Oh, believe me, there was lots of programming but it was never quiet. We'd talk to each other about everything, I was his confidante and he was mine. And we'd fight coooonstantly. Actual fighting yes, but play fighting too. Then when we got older we'd make robots together all the time and then code them to battle."

"Dude no way! So like, Big Hero 6 in real life?"

Pidge shook her head. "Nothing that advanced, it was mostly household objects and junk Matt would bring home for me to mess around with. But since you brought it up, that was our favorite movie to watch together," Pidge said, scooting into Lance's lap so she could lean her head on the armrest. "Matt looooves Disney movies and would always beg me to go with him so he wouldn't be judged." She smiled at the memory of her older brother tugging at her sleeve like a child with a gleam in his eye when he first saw Disney commercials come on the television. "When we first saw Big Hero 6, he pointed to Hiro and laughed and said that was literally me, the crazy little sibling. He said 'I guess that makes me Tadashi – smarter, protective, and objectively better looking.' And then when Tadashi di-" Pidge broke off at the unexpected lump in her throat. "Um," she brought a hand up to her face briefly, trying to catch her train of thought. She gave a tiny sigh of relief when Lance looked back at the TV, pretending to be interested. If the tears began to spill, at least he wouldn't see it.

"When he, um, when Tadashi ran into that burning building, it terrified me." Pidge continued, quieter now. "I squeezed Matt's hand and started crying but he just hugged me in the theater and whispered, 'it's okay Pidge, I'll never leave you like that.' But still, I always skip that scene. I just can't bear to see a character lose his older brother. I remember we watched it just before he went to Kerberos and when I hit fast-forward he squeezed my shoulder and promised he'd be back. But..." her voice trailed off as the unbidden tears began to slip down her cheeks.

"Pidge," Lance whispered, laying down so his head was next to hers. He wrapped her in a hug and she buried her face into his shoulder, biting her lip to keep the sobs quiet.

"I'm sorry," she managed, her voice breaking as she tried to keep it under control, "I just meant to tell you about his failed prom date, not..." Pidge trailed off again as she choked up. "Sorry," she said again, dipping her chin down so she could rub her eyes.

"Hey genius," Lance murmured gently, pulling her closer and rustling her hair. "You should know you have nothing to apologize for."

She simply buried her head into his chest, letting herself cry and letting Lance hold her close.

"Wanna know a theory I heard about?" Lance asked after a few moments. He paused, then went on when she didn't reply. "I heard they're bringing Tadashi back in the second movie."

She laughed a little in the midst of her tears and turned over so she was facing the television once again, her back pressed snugly against Lance's chest.

"And no matter what," Lance continued, wrapping his arms protectively around her. "We're going to find them. Just like we found Shiro."

Pidge gave a ragged sigh. "But that was just an accident," she whispered.

"We still found him, didn't we?" Lance responded, and she could've sworn she heard a smile in his voice.

Pidge smiled in response, and let out her last hint of a sob.

"Now," Lance tapped her shoulder softly. "If you're okay with it, I'd love to hear about that awkward prom date."

With another laugh, Pidge began her tale.

They carried on this way for hours, long after the movie finished and nearly into the morning. They swapped stories of their lives before they'd met and confessed to pranks they caused at the Garrison. Hours passed and still, they were laughing together, surprising each other, and trying not to cry anymore. By the time the others began to stir they were fast asleep on the couch, Lance's arms wrapped snugly around Pidge and a ghost of a smile on both of their faces.