Early first shift on the Castle of Lions usually meant that Allura would be walking a lonely patrol after having chased Shiro to his quarters to at least get some sleep. Coran would likely have taken the shift himself, if Allura hadn't ordered her to leave it in her hands. While she was the Princess of Altea, and Commander of Voltron, it did not mean she was above her duties as a part of this military force.
Of course as the force consisted entirely of five humans, four Altean mice, and two Alteans, with no official sovereignty's protection and guidance aside from her own as the last ruler of Planet Altea, she supposed they could be taken as a guerilla para-military force. Any way you described it, they were against the cruel and merciless Galran Empire.
Lingering just outside the Command Deck, she let her gaze shift down the hall where her father's hologram had once resided. She wished in part that she could still spend time with him, remembering a time before duty became a focal point of her life. However, she knew that the time for that had passed and she needed to stand on her own without relying on her father's memory. Even if their parting hadn't been what she wished for, it was necessary and she would do it over again should the need arise. No matter how much her heart prayed to never have to face that particular challenge again.
Steeling her resolve, she paused as a soft tugging at her combat suit's legging was accompanied by the faint mental tug she had come to know fairly well since emerging from the stasis pods. Looking down, she saw the four mice trying to get her attention, motioning for her to follow them quietly. Kneeling, she offered her hand for them to climb onto so they could guide her without wearing themselves out.
The mice guided her swiftly to the engine room, pointing to a small access hatch that still bore some scars from where Pidge had sliced through them on their daring counter-assault. It was oddly open just the barest of slivers, and the mice where urging her to look inside. What she found inside was hardly surprising, or at least it was no longer as surprising as it might have once been. Pidge was inside with a secondary access hatch open as they appeared to be working on the systems; however Pidge seemed to have finally succumbed to their body's exhaustion and drifted off.
Oddly enough, she couldn't find any wiring, tools, or even the diagnostic laptop Pidge always used. Tilting her head, she reached in to begin the slow process of working Pidge free from their sleeping nest to move them to somewhere a bit more comfortable. She would have to remember to ask them about this after they got some more sleep.
Before she could grab hold of Pidge, the mice pulled a strange object out of the hole Pidge was working in and placed it firmly into her hands. Frowning in confusion, she pulled back to look at the thing in better detail of the muted light of the hallway. It was barely larger than her hand and about as thick as her one of her fingers. Along one side was a spiral of metal wire which she assumed could be used as a hinge for the flimsy sheets of material between the two slightly firmer covers. On the one cover was a line of the human language 'English' that she had been learning to read with help from her Paladins. She didn't know what 'Journal' meant, but she assumed it was the title of what this object should be called.
She was about to set it down and go back for her Paladin, when the smallest mouse leaped up onto her hand and flipped open the object, revealing more of the English inside. It was the rushed hurried scribbling of Pidge's when they were forced to write outside of the computers they loved so much. But she couldn't help but notice her name mentioned several times on the two sheets she had been opened to. Her name had been one of the first things that Shiro had taught her after getting the basics of the lettering down, and she counted no less than five mentions of her. Was Pidge taking notes about her? How strange… perhaps she should run this through that translation program Pidge had created for them. But something felt… invasive about this.
Snapping the object shut, she pointed for the mice to return it where it belonged. They refused at first, before complying. That was odd, they never refused her outright like that before; so perhaps it was important that she read it? Instead of worrying about it, she reached in and shook the Green Paladin's foot softly. "Pidge? It's Allura, can you come out?"
There was a soft grumble of discontent from the sleeping paladin, however the foot pushed back against her hand, followed shortly after by the rest of the leg, and the body it was attached to. Pidge blinked at Allura for a moment before mumbling something about fixing latency issues, sleep causing their voice to be a bit softer than perhaps was normal. Allura didn't really think much about things before motioning for Pidge to get moving.
As the sleepy Paladin moved, Allura knelt to close the access hatch. As she looked inside, she couldn't help but notice the mice were standing on the now smooth surface of the access tube where the object had been pulled out of. Had Pidge closed that with her Journal inside? Turning to ask, she found the Paladin out of range already and frowned. They weren't carrying it, so it must still be inside. Why would Pidge be hiding something like this?
Sliding the hatch back closed, she looked at the mice that had stopped at her feet with a wary look. "I think we'll leave this to Pidge," she suggested to the mice, which looked at each other before sighing heavily and nodding in agreement. "Come along; let's go make sure they at least find something suitable to sleep on."
To her surprise the Green Paladin didn't go straight to the first surface they could lay on, moving towards the wing the Paladins had claimed as their own. It was rare for them to go to their room; in fact Allura wondered if this was the first time they'd been in there outside of personal hygiene. As she poked her head in, she looked at the room curiously, having refrained from pressuring Pidge about her desires to get closer to them only made her more interested in seeing what they were like in private.
The sight that greeted her was hardly what she expected, it looked like pure chaos, but as she looked, it felt like there was a pattern to this madness. The bed was perfectly made; much like all the rooms had been after Coran ensured they were clean enough for the Paladins to use. But that was the only tidy thing about the area. There were piles of computer parts to one side of the room, a nest of blankets and sheets across the room from that, Pidge's armor and Bayard were next to the bedding pile, between it and the door. Then her eyes travelled up to take in the sight of the walls, and her jaw hung open. Most of them had been converted to display several things that appeared to be connected bits of information. They were pinned to the wall with needles off one of the plants off of Arus, and written on more of those thin sheets of crinkly material. Most of it was lost to her, but over the bed nest, she noticed something that made her smile.
It was a simple pair of pictures that seemed to be drawn by Pidge themself at some point. The one on the right appeared to be a technical schematic of Voltron and the lions. The one that was to the left appeared to be a bit more… speculative in nature?
It looked like some grand Robeast crying out to Voltron in challenge with an adorably evil expression and giant sword. She could read enough of the English language to make out that word in bold letters on the top of the page. There was a woman of some description smiling at the Robeast? Behind her was a crude missile aiming past a crescent moon, a scribbled out smiling face, and… a giant beetle creature?
Perhaps if she was ever invited back, she might ask about it, however at the time a strange noise reached her ears drawing her attention back to the Paladin she was watching over. It had sounded like ripping fabric, and as she watched Pidge pulled out a strange vestment they had been wearing from under their other clothes. It appeared to have some stretch to it, but not much. Something about it seemed to cause Pidge discomfort as they spent a few minutes stretching before folding the piece up and setting it carefully on their armor.
What happened next caused Allura to pause as she watched Pidge move over next to the pile of computer components and kneel down to pick up a sheet with a drawing of a familiar pyramid next to a grinning green human that Allura could recognize as Pidge. It was a loving and detailed drawing, and rent the princess's heart as she realized it was all Pidge had to remember Rover by.
"Hey Rover, long day," Pidge mumbled tiredly as they picked up a quill from a small container in a drawer. Pushing the quill through the sheet, they pinned the drawing to the wall over the pile of components. "But I finally got the stealth program decoded enough I think I can replicate it."
Even though it was just Pidge talking to a drawing, which seemed odd the Princess, she felt that it was meant to be a private moment between the two. Stepping back while Pidge let out a yawn, she moved swiftly towards the Command Deck feeling that Pidge would be safe to find their way to their bed without her watching over.
While her mind was stuck on the situation with Pidge, she could be forgiven for not noticing that the mice had leaped off of her shoulder to hang out on an air vent, sharing a look. At the nod from the smallest one, they zipped into the air ducts, tiny clawed feet clattering against the metal of the ducting.
A second later, the door reopened, and a familiar bushy head of brown hair looked out in confusion at the now empty hall. Pushing their glasses up on their face, they decided to add looking at the door's servos to the repair tasks they would do with Hunk tomorrow.