Rating: T (violence)

Characters: Lance, Keith, Pidge/Katie H., Hunk, Shiro, Allura, Coran, Matt H., new aliens (like a lot), Galra

Additional Tags: Gen, platonic relationships, space family, hurt!keith, hurt!lance, whump, how do i tag, mild profanity usage, blood and injury descriptions, not season 4 compliant, au

Space Games

Finally getting the game system working was supposed to simple enough. Lance figured he could get it to work, with a little outside help. Just had to finish this mission first. He'd be playing games later, wither he wanted to or not. "Ah setting up a game system with your friends? Here let's play one of mine, it'll be a real… blast." Yeah, definitely didn't want to play this one.

In which accomplishing a simple task turned out to be a much greater ordeal than what Lance was hoping for. This story takes place before season 4, with Shiro just being back recently but before Keith left. That little gray area of time when missions are happening with Shiro there, but not piloting the Black Lion. This fic is rated as T for now, but some chapters may be borderline MA because of violence. Warnings will be given at the start of the chapters as they come up.

See bottom for AN

Chapter 1: Sleep is for the Weak and Fully Prepared

Before any damage she'd regret later could be inflected to her work, Pidge pushed herself away from her work station with an aggressive shove. 'Why does coding have to be so difficult sometimes,' she mused. 'I know what I want to happen so why can't the stupid computer figure it out already'.

Standing up her spine protested by cracking loudly from lack of motion. She paused, arms stretched above her head, half expecting a jab saying how, "She shouldn't break like that yet". Not getting anything made her glance around the now obviously empty hanger. She furrowed her brow. What time was it? Late, if her now noticeably tired bones and strained eyes were anything to go by.

Her brain definitely needed a break. It wasn't like her code was going anywhere. Giving one last glare at her computer, she locked her computer and grabbed her tablet, getting up to leave. Walking through the halls further proved the late hour as the castle lights had dimmed to indicate night mode. Seeing how she had apparently missed dinner, Pidge set course for the kitchen, her stomach giving a light growl of approval of this plan.

She was almost to the kitchen, only to pause upon hearing lightly contained frustrated noises coming from one of the spare rooms. She paused outside, listening as a loud groan and light thump sounded from inside. Concerned and curious, Pidge decided to investigate. The door slide open to revel a disheveled Lance, jacket tossed to the side, lying on the ground with his arms crossed over his face, pliers in hand. Around him lay scattered cords, converters, and other hand tools that appear to have been grabbed at random.

Seeing as he hadn't heard the door open Pidge called out, "Lance? What..."

"Pidge I" -His arms flew up, dropping the pliers beside him- "oh man you scared the quiznack out of me!"

"Like I've said before Lance, I don't think you're using that right. Now what are you doing?"

"Well seeing as it's the middle of the night castle time I feel I should be asking you the same"- Pidge scowled in mock hurt at the accusation-"but really, I'm not surprised. I'm just trying to get our game counsel to work. Thought I'd be nice, ya know?" Lance finally sat up and turned to look at her. He was smiling, but she could tell that Lance was as done with his project as she was hers. Cracking a sly half smile she decided to offer her assistance.

"Well that would be nice. Maybe I could help for a tick?" Lance grinned a rather sleep deprived smile, his blue eyes clearing a bit of the fog that had settled in them.

"What, don't think that I can get it to work, Pidegy?" he cooed. She huffed and rolled her eyes.

"No," she replied while walking the rest of the way in, joining him on the floor, "I just wanted to see if I could help or take a look. My other project is being fickle and I need a break from it right now."

"Well…" Lance started, cupping his chin with one hand, "I suppose if you really wanted to assist me you could." He beamed at her and she again rolled her eyes with a sigh, smiling nonetheless. Pidge then turned her attention to the rig of connection wires and converters Lance had gathered when starting this project who knows how long ago. Taking inventory and following the trail of cords and sautered wires led her to where she could see why Lance would be having difficulty. Attaching the next connection would require just the right angle and probably three hands to do it right. There would need to be one or two more things added to the mechanism for it to ultimately work, but the fundamental building blocks looked solid to her perspective. Just as she was about to comment on his work, her train of thought was interrupted by a plate of food goo appearing before her line of sight.

"You weren't at dinner so I thought I'd grab you something while you scrutinize my work," Lance smirked. He set the plate down next to her then sat down again himself, returning his gaze to the gaming rig. "So do you think that this is going to work? I know I'm not totally tech savvy like you and Hunk but you do pick up on things being around you both all the time. Believe it or not I did pay attention, mostly, back at the garrison."

"Actually Lance" - She picked up the small plate and fork- "I was just about to commend you for the foundation. Looks like real solid work! Also, thanks for the food goo. I kinda forgot that's where I was headed originally," she replied a little sheepishly. She went on to explain her theory of how they could connect some of the existing work to an adapter. She was just getting to how they could rig one of the altean large tablets to be similar to a television when she caught Lance looking past her with a slightly confused and dazed look to his blue eyes. She picked up on a undercurrent of pain from his furrowed brow yet there was a happy twitch to his mouth, appearing slightly off. "What? Does that not seem like a good idea to you?" Pidge asked.

"What no! No, no I was just thinking that I was lucky that you showed up when you did", Lance stammered, quickly breaking into a grin. "Otherwise I'd never get to bed and it would totally not be good missing all that beauty sleep." She was sure there was something more, but decided to let it slide. For now at least. She made a mental note to herself to keep track if the look returned; it looked so alien on the normally boisterous Blue Paladin's face.

With that said, Lance let her finish attempting to explain her plan, nothing but nods and encouraging smiles. As soon as she finished her explanation Lance turned to grab a smile knife and a spare wire from the scattered mess. She was lost in thought of how some of the initial connection could be rearranged if necessary to increase speed when a new voice broke her out of her reverie. "Oh so I did hear other people up. Pidge, I'm not too surprised to see but Lance? What are you guys doing?

A startled yelp escaped the other opponent, Pidge catching the sight of something dropping to the ground out of the corner of her eye. First scanning the doorway revealed that the new voice was in fact, Keith. He was dressed in his usual workout gear but not nearly as dead as he appeared post training. Keith must have heard them talking on his way to the training deck, she figured. Which could only mean one thing: it was ridiculously early in the morning.

"Gah Keith! Oh man is it already time for you to lightly kill yourself? You scared me man and oh now I'm bleeding." Pidge whipped her head around at that. Apparently it had been the knife she saw fall to the ground, Lance dropping it after cutting his index finger. The cut was indeed bleeding, but not terribly. Keith gave a slight scowl before handing a small cloth to Lance to apply pressure to the cut. While doing so, Keith reiterating, "No but really, what are you guys doing? Did you even sleep?"

"Well," Pidge began, "It was on the agenda. Just got a bit sidetracked."

Lance looked like he wanted to protest, probably going on to say that he had been diligently working on the gaming system all night but held his tongue. This surprised Pidge the most, not knowing Lance even had that ability. The first tissue from Keith seemed to be doing little to help, as Lance was quickly searching his pockets for any spare tissue to help stop the blood flow while he maintained pressure. Must have been a bit deeper than she originally thought.

Movement by the door recaptured her attention. She could see Keith getting more irritated by the minute, running his hand through his hair, a defeated expression on his face. Even if his tone didn't change, Pidge knew she could now include him on the list of people feeling 'done' at the moment.

"Guys, go to sleep. Now. Remember the mission that we have planned for later today? Yeah still happening."

Oh shit, the mission. Pidge could see Lance's eyes widen slightly at the recollection and she couldn't help the small groan that escaped her lips. That earned her a probably deserved glare in her direction by Keith. It wasn't like she had completely forgot about the rescue they had planned for the day, she just got a bit sidetracked. Heck, the stupid code she had been working on she had hoped to be able to test out on this mission! She agreed though; they definitely needed to go to sleep. The aches and tired feeling that she had been ignoring while talking to Lace suddenly emerging with renewed vengeance. Looking at Lance, he gave a slight shrug before standing up, still clutching his finger with the now pink tissue. Pidge was quick to follow suit, gathering her tablet back into her arms and began following the other two Paladins out the door. It's not like they wouldn't have time later besides, Lance's finger was still bleeding and making sure he only needed a Band-Aid was the only thing between her and her bed.

All three paladins left the to-be game room and headed to the med bay with Lance. After quickly cleaning the cut, before it started to bleed again, Pidge determined that it was not too deep for just a Band-Aid and left after it was secured around Lance's finger. Keith, who had been watching from the side, nodded then left to go train for the morning. Both Pidge and Lance headed back towards their rooms, Lance grabbing a few extra Band-Aids since it looked like he would bleed through this one.

Unlocking her door and spying her bed sent another wave of exhaustion through her. Although reluctant she couldn't crack her code by the mission, Pidge flopped down on her bed not even bothering to turn the lights on initially or change into nightwear. Kicking off her shoes, she figured that it would've been nice to test the code on this mission if she had gotten the chance. Sighing into her pillow, Pidge allowed herself to drift off to sleep.

The sleep was short lived though, because it seemed no time had passed before she felt a hand lightly shaking her shoulder. "Hey come on, we need to meet up soon before the mission," a voice that distantly sounded like Shiro said. A little more jostling helped her shake off the last remnants of sleep. Pulling herself upright, Pidge cracked open her eyes to see she was right about who was there. Shiro was standing in his paladin armor by her bedside, a small frown expressing his concern.

"S'lright, Shiro m'up. Promise," Pidge slurred. She blinked hard and yawned while finally drawing all her attention to the black paladin. His frown deepened slightly but before he could say anything she inputted, "And I'll be up and ready soon. I got like what, four hours of sleep? That's more than enough to keep me going good," She tried to reassure by trying to sound awake.

"Three and a half actually," Shiro retorted. "Well I still wish you'd sleep more but that's about typical of you. Lance though…" He left the concern hang in the air. While Pidge was used to being a proud member of team 'No Sleep', Lance and his bed were practically best friends. A friendship riving his with Hunk even.

"Well, I can actually share my space coffee today so Sleeping Beauty won't complain the whole mission," Pidge suggested.

"It's not the complaining I'm really worried about, but that couldn't hurt." Shiro sighed. Pidge could almost see the internal anxieties building up and really wished she could just understand the underlying concerns plaguing him. That would involve tearing down his security walls, and she couldn't subject Shiro to reliving his blocked memories. Not when they were obviously so painful.

"Okay meet down in the kitchen in twenty dobashes" and with that Shiro left her to prepare for the impending mission. Rolling out of bed was still difficult but she had to keep pretending to be a functioning person. Fake it until you make it, right? Only eighteen more dobashes until the team was reviewing their strategy for the mission. She just hoped it was enough time to mentally ready herself and hoped that everyone else was more prepared then her.

Author's Note:

All the foreshadowing. This is my very first fic, so any critics would be greatly appreciated! Think of this chapter as only an introduction and plot builder; if all goes well things will really kick up in the next chapter. I'm working on a publishing schedule. Please leave a review below! See you in the next chapter!