Pidge and Lance weren't speaking to each other.
Under normal circumstances, Kieth would have attributed it to Lance saying something stupid and Pidge refusing to talk to him. But, there was no apparent animosity between them, from planning discussions to doing battle in Voltron, they simply didn't speak to each other.
As Keith sat on the bridge, pondering the dilemma of his two teammates, Allura glided into the room in one of her flowing gowns. 'Probably as close as she gets to relaxed clothing' Keith thought sarcastically.
"Good morning Paladin!" Allura greeted cheerfully. She went up to the command consul and began running system checks. "Princess, have you noticed anything odd with Lance or Pidge?" Kieth questioned, figuring he should get second opinion before he brought it up with Shiro. Just in case he was being paranoid.
Allura stopped her work and turned fully towards Kieth. "Well, I haven't noticed anything unusual with Pidge, but Lance..." Kieth stood, his expression becoming more serious. Allura sighed "He has stopped with his constant pursuit of me. The inappropriate comments have stopped, and he's even ceased staring at me whenever I'm in the same room as him."
Honestly, I was just relieved when he stopped, but its been almost a week and it's beginning to worry me." Kieth nodded, releasing that he hadn't heard Lance gushing about the princess in the same time period. "Wait, a week ago was when Lance and Pidge got back from that survey mission to that planet!" Allura gasped.
10 Days Earlier
"We haven't had too much luck decoding the Galra communications module, and most of the messages we've intercepted have been routine. However, he do have two leads on our next mission." Pidge explained to the team crowded around her chair. "The first is a small space space station with minimal defenses. If we could sneak on, we could get more Intel. The second is a recently charted habitable world with an unknown code attached to it."
Shiro closely studied the screen "Any clues as to its meaning?" Pidge shook her head "Nope. It doesn't bear any resemblance to either the code for a dangerous world or a potential colony. None of the other tags have been altered so its not a code change."
Kieth spoke up at this point. "I say we hit the station. This planet could be a trap for all we know, and even of it isn't we can't waste time on a minor world with no Galra presence." "But what if theirs intelligent life there? They could be in danger!" Hunk exclaimed.
"Besides," Pidge spoke up, "We don't know what they might have found on that world, and we're not going to find out if we just ignore it." "Well, it seems simple to me. Pidge goes to the planet, and the rest of us go kick some Galra butt!" Lance jumped in.
Kieth glared at him "Splitting our forces up is a terrible idea. If it is a trap, we'll have delivered the Galra a lion. And we won't be able to form Voltron if the station is better protected than it appears." Allura stepped into before it could turn into a full shouting match between the two old rivals.
"Paladins, please! You all bring up good points, and I for one agree that we should investigate this world... wait, Pidge, does it have a name?" Pidge studied the screen for a moment "Its just a numerical code, using our alphabet its GX-34A"
Shiro calmly reasserted control of the conversation "Splitting our forces is a risk, but if there's something at GX-34A, we need to know. If we hit the station, who knows when we'll be back to this area." Kieth was visibly unhappy, but relented.
Taking the silence for agreement Shiro turned to Pidge. "You'll take the Green Lion to GX, and Lance is taking his Lion for extra firepower if you run into any trouble." "Wait, why do I have to go? I wanted to fight at the station and" Shiro held up a hand to cut him off "It was your idea to split up the team, so you're going and that's final."
Lances mouth snapped shut and his expression turned sour. Kieth smirked at Lances displeasure before turning to Coran. "Is planet GX is close enough that they don't need a wormhole to get there?" Coran pulled his mustache and hummed as he studied the map.
"It'll be a long flight, but perfectly doable." "Than it's settled! We'll set a rendezvous in, say, two days just outside the system the station is in. that should give you two plenty of time to survey the planet." Allura said brightly, secretly relived to be rid of Lance for at least a couple days.
Lance turned to her, a smile he probably thought was sexy firmly in place. "I'll be counting the moments we're apart, Princess." Everyone rolled their eyes and Hunk made overly ex grated gagging sounds. It was Alluras turn to adopt a sour face. 'Definitely glad to have him gone' she thought to herself.
Pidge grabbed Lances arm and pulled him towards the main hall. "Come on Romeo, we have to pack." Lance grumbled but allowed himself to be led away.
8 Days Earlier
The assault on the Galra station had proven unusually smooth. They were able to download the computer core using Pidges program and even overloaded the stations reactor, totally destroying station and the cargo freighters docked there.
Unfortunately, they were unable to find any actionable targets in the core, and so resigned themselves to waiting for the survey team to return.
The rendezvous time came and went, with no sign of the Lions. As the time stretched out, the team began to get more tense.
Kieth was all for heading straight there, while everyone else thought it best to remain in position for the moment. Finally, when they were 8 hours overdue, Shiro ordered them to set course for GX-34A. Hoover, less than twenty minutes into the flight, the missing Lions appeared on scanners.
Following docking, Pidge and Lance were called to the bridge. Pidge started off "Sorry we're late, but we now know what that Galra code means. It refers to unusual chemicals produced by the organic life on the planet. They had no effects we could see, and we decontaminated on our Lions, but we should go to the infirmary to make sure."
"Plus, the place was hideous, and smelled like Hunk after taco night. Not my idea of pleasant!" Pidge rolled her eyes, walking over to her chair to start filing her findings in the computer. Shiro shook his head, but accepted the explanation without question. Lance caught Hunk and demanded a play by play for the battle he'd missed. Everything seemed back to normal.
Present
Allura and Kieth stared at each other, with Kieth speaking first. "Is it possible that something happened on their mission?" Allura shook her head, a dozen scenarios playing out in her mind. At best, they'd simply had a conversation that was still causing effects between them. At worst, they'd been captured by the Galra and either replaced or brain washed.
"At the very least, we need to bring the others in on this." Allura finally said. She walked over to the consul, switching to internal sensors. Lance was on the training deck, running a marksman program and Pidge was in the Green Lion hanger.
Allura quickly opened a secure comm link with the Shiro, Hunk and Coran. "Could you please come up to the bridge? There's a matter I need to discuss with you." Within 5 minutes, all three where on the deck, looking vaguely confused.
She quickly laid out the theory she and Kieth had come up with, and to her unpleasant surprise, none of them immediately dismissed it. Hunk nodded solemnly "Yeah, I've noticed something is off. Lance has been throwing himself into his work and when he does joke it feels half-heated at best."
"Indeed, I've noticed he become unusually introspective, but he avoids any serious discussion of it." Coran added. Shiro had a dark look on his face "Pidge has been working harder than normal too. And seems to be eating at odd hours. Hours that means she's never in the mess with Lance."
"We should recheck those medical scans from before. Just in case there's something we missed." Kieth said. "Lets all keep our eyes open, but whatever we find we have to tell them about this. Keeping secrets will only damage our relationship with them." Shiro commanded. Everyone nodded, feeling horrible about having to investigate two of their own.
The Next Day
Team Voltron (minus 2) met in the main dining after a long night of work. Pidge and Lances inability to be in the same room had proven a boon, as Lance was out flying the Blue Lion and Pidge was working on the reactor system.
Shiro had not slept "Anything to report?" he asked in a clipped tone. Coran leaned forward "Their medical scans where clean, only thing that was different was an elevated amount of serotonin in their brains. It doesn't correspond with any known mind control method."
"If there's anyone who can alter the records, its Pidge. How do we know she didn't get into the files." Kieth argued "That's impossible. Paladin Pidge may be skilled with technology, but no one knows the castle of Lions like I do. Even the slightest evidence of tampering would be viable to my keen eyes." Coran boasted back.
Shiro held up his hand to forestall any further argument. "Hunk, what did you figure out?" Hunk gulped nervously "Well, Lance has put triple hours onto the training deck and flying the Blue Lion in the past week. Pidge's hours haven't changed too much, but she has been putting more time in isolated areas, such as the hanger."
Allura cleared her throat "No outgoing transmissions in the past week, and there's no evidence that any systems have been tampered with." Shiro shook his head. "So, we've got no evidence to suggest any infiltration. If only there was a way to figure out what happened on GX."
"Well..." said Allura, looking down at the table "That's not entirely true. The Lions internal sensors do record audio and and visual when the pilot is present." The three Paladins jaws dropped. Kieth slammed to his feet "And you've never mentioned this why?!"
Even Shiro's gaze hardened "It's because they wanted to have an way to watch us in case they suspected we were using our Lions as secure places to talk." His tone was frigid as he accused the Alteans, both of whom had the grace to look ashamed "You have to understand, all of you came out of nowhere, typically Paladins take years to be vetted before being granted a Lion. We couldn't take the risk that you might not have the universes best interests at heart. I apologize. We should have told you sooner"
Hunk pulled Kieth back into his seat, attempting to play peace maker. "Well, whats important is that we know now. So, Pidge is away from her Lion, we could access the data log while she's busy." Kieth grumbled, but nodded his acceptance. Shiro sighed "Fine. Coran, go make sure Pidge doesn't disturb us. Princess, you're with me."
The three humans marched out of the hall without a backwards glance. Coran looked questioningly over to the Princess. She looked defeated "Do as he says Coran. No point in making them any more angry with us." With that, she stood and strode out after the Paladins.
Green Lion Hanger Bay
Allura moved quickly over to the dormant Lion, opening a control panel on the left hind leg. A few button press later, a small holographic screen appeared, showing Pidge piloting. "We'll be able to hear all the communications between them." Allura clarified "This should be right when they arrive at GX-34A."
On screen Pidge started moving. "Okay, we're approaching the planet. Lets do a full sweep, than head planet side." She ordered calmly. Lance groaned over the comm "Fine, but make your nerds-pedition quick. I want to show Kieth just how awesome I've gotten at blowing Galra out of the sky!"
Pidge slumped in the seat, "Why do you insist on this pathetic rivalry with Kieth? All it does is make you look worse by trying to upstage him." "I wouldn't expect you to understand. This is a pilot thing, a competition of great men to see who the best truly is! Now, naturally, its me, but I want to.." Lance was suddenly cut off as Pidge slammed her hand into the controls.
Muttering something about idiotic man children, Pidge performed the sensor sweep, than brought the Lion into the atmosphere. After un-muting Lance, he proceeded to gush about the beauty of the planet. The camera angle meant that the watchers couldn't see out of the cockpit."Yes, Lance, its very pretty. Now, can you focus? Scans show its habitable, but there are some unknown readings I'll have to look into." Pidge noted dryly.
The Lion than shook before stilling, probably landing. Pidge than exited, and the feed ended. Kieth shot Allura a look "This is useless. Wheres the rest?" Allura glared back "I said that the camera is only active when occupied."
As if to prove her point, the feed started back up, but no one was evident for the first few moments. Then the cockpit doors opened and everyone's jaws dropped open. Lance and Pidge were kissing. Well, calling it kissing didn't do it justice. Their mouths were locked together, each one apparently trying to inhale the other.
Their position was equally shocking. Pidge was in Lance's arms, her arms around his neck and his hands squeezing her ass. The armored pieces of their uniforms were missing, and their jumpsuits were partially unzipped.
The Paladins and Princess stood stock still, minds not comprehending what was on the screen in front of them. Lance carried Pidge over to the chair, where he sat down. Pidge drew back, a sultry smile on her face. Lance moved his hands to remove the rest of her suit, be she stopped him.
"Oh no. It's my turn now." Pidge said an a deeply sexual tone. She pulled Lances jumpsuit open and started trailing kisses down his neck towards his chest. Lance slowly moaned "Don't stop Pidge.." Pidge disobeyed and suddenly started nibbling on his ear. In a deeper and slightly harsher voice she said "For the last time Lance, call me Katie."