College AU
"Hey, Pidge, do you wanna see Beauty and the Beast?"
"Cheesy Disney movie remake? No thanks."
"Do you wanna go see The Greatest Showman?"
"Really? A musical?"
"The theatre is showing Millenium Actress this weekend!"
"Unless they somehow managed to animate it better, I'm staying here."
"Space Odyssey coming out tomorrow…"
"I have to work on a paper, sorry."
"Pidge, I reserved us seats for-"
"Not now, Lance!"
For a month, Lance had been showing up to Pidge's room with the offer to see a movie. And for a month, Pidge had been rejecting them with her natural sarcasm and wryness. She didn't think twice about saying no, sometimes because the movie was simply not her taste, and sometimes because she was too busy working on a project. Admittedly, she did appreciate his effort, especially when he started suggesting movies that came closer to what she liked.
It became somewhat of a routine for the dark skinned boy to poke his head in Pidge's room every other day, a movie title on his tongue. Pidge was so used to the sound of the door quietly swinging open and her boyfriend's voice following suit that she found herself wondering if something had happened to him when he didn't show up one day. She remembered yelling at him the last time he showed up. She had been doing some last minute fixes to the code of one of her major projects that day, and didn't have the patience to focus on anything other than that. Knowing Lance, she worried that she accidentally hurt him. He seemed fine when she texted him though, and she told herself that he was simply busy doing school work he had probably neglected.
Lance didn't show up the next few days, and Pidge's worry grew tenfold. They had been texting as they normally would, but something felt off. Pidge hadn't seen Lance since the last time he came to ask her out to a movie, and that was including class hours. Despite the fact that she sometimes complained about the boy being too clingy and visiting her room too often, his absence left her feeling lonely. She often found herself staring at the door, waiting for the familiar head of dark brown hair to peek inside, or even contemplating going over to his dorm room.
By Friday, Pidge knew for sure that the way she'd brushed Lance off all those times had affected him. She even checked with Hunk, his roommate. Her worry turned into guilt, and she started thinking of ways to make it up to him. She tossed ideas around in her head, most of them going in the trash bin as soon as they came to mind. Cleaning his room wasn't such a good idea when she couldn't even keep her own room clean, and doing his homework for him didn't feel like making it up to him as a girlfriend. She wasn't a very romantic person, which made it harder for her to come up with good ideas. Lance was always the one coming up with this kind of stuff.
After an hour of mulling over ideas (and maybe asking her older brother Matt for help), she finally had a plan she knew was perfect.
As soon as her classes ended for the day, she got to work.
"You're not going over to Pidge's room today, either?" Hunk asked, raising a brow at the lump of moping Cuban on the upper bunk of the bed. From where he was seated by the desk, he had a perfect view of the bundle of blankets he called his roommate. That same roommate who, for the past month, had been unsuccessfully trying to ask his girlfriend out on a movie date, and has been spending the past few days wrapped in blankets whenever he wasn't in class.
"No," came the muffled reply, "If I bug her any more, she'll hate me."
Hunk furrowed his brows, the way he did when one of his friends were acting out of character. He couldn't imagine Pidge, as fierce and foul-mouthed as she was, hating Lance. Maybe if he messed up one of her important codes or accidentally threw out something important, but even then she would only be angry for three weeks at most. He didn't see how asking her out for a movie would make her hate him.
He was about to ask if something had happened between them, when his phone chimed, signaling he had received a text. He glanced at the notification.
New message from Pidge Holt:
hey, is lance okay?
Yeah, something definitely happened.
He unlocked his phone and swiveled his chair around to make sure that his screen was out of Lance's sight. Not that he could even see what was on it from where he was bundled up. It was just something he did unconsciously.
Hunk Garrett
He's been moping all week, actually.
Pidge Holt
crap, i knew it
Hunk Garrett
Did you guys fight or something?
He thinks you'll start hating him if he asks you out one more time.
Pidge Holt
i was stressed out the last time he came and i yelled at him
Hunk Garrett
Oh
Pidge Holt
yeah, sorry if he's been bothering you
i'll fix it
Hunk texted back before setting his phone back down on the table. He trusted Pidge to patch things up with Lance, hopefully by tonight. He didn't know how much longer he could take going out to buy take out for his human burrito friend and listening to him talk to himself at night when he was supposed to be sleeping.
Sure enough, Lance's phone lit up with a text a few hours later. Its owner would have ignored it, if it weren't for the sound of chirping that came with it. It was the ringtone that he'd set for Pidge, or Tiny Pidgeon, as he'd named her on his phone. Hunk wasn't surprised when a slender hand popped out of the mound to grab the phone before disappearing back into it. He simply rolled his eyes and shook his head before going back to the comic book he was reading.
Although Lance had been texting Pidge as he usually would, sending funny pictures and vines in between conversations, he was surprised to see that she wanted him to come to her room. 'Hey, could you come over and help me with something,' the text read. He stared at it for a few seconds, unblinking until a smile worked its way onto his face. It felt a little weird to go over to her room after physically avoiding her for nearly a week, but he couldn't think of a reason to come up with an excuse and say no. All he could think of was that Pidge needed his help, and she rarely ever asked for help, too. He couldn't help being excited to see her, either.
'Sure,' he replied, 'Be there in a few mins.'
It took him a few seconds to untangle himself from the layers of blankets and comforters he'd been wrapped in for the past few hours, nearly falling off his half of the bunk in the process. He all but jumped down from his bed, which probably bothered the guys living below him, and scrambled to freshen up as fast as humanly possible. Before long, Lance was ready, having washed his face with cold water, changed into a fresh shirt, and tamed his hair in three minutes.
"I'm heading over to Pidge's room," Lance stated as he worked on putting his shoes on, "She needs help with something."
"Good luck with that," Hunk replied, his eyes never leaving the comic book in his hands. He figured Pidge had her own way of "fixing" things with Lance, and didn't comment.
"Thanks, buddy!" Lance called, practically leaping out into the hallway. He heard the door shut loudly behind him, yelling an apology he hoped his roommate and neighbors heard before heading down the familiar path to Pidge's room in the other half of the building, where the girls' rooms were found. By now, Lance didn't even need to think of where to turn or which door to push- he knew it like the back of his hand. He's probably been to his girlfriend's room more than any other place on campus, including his own room (minus the bathroom, of course).
A few girls who were hanging in the hallway waved at the dark skinned boy, and he waved back amicably. They've seen him more than enough times to get past the point of awkwardly staring at him for barging into the girls' dorms. He'd even befriended a number of Pidge's neighbors, too, swapping skin care routines and makeup hacks every now and then. When the small girl wasn't around, he would sometimes hang out with them in the lounge while waiting.
It wasn't long before he found himself in front of Pidge's door, a chalkboard doodle of her staring back at him with her tongue stuck out. He remembered watching her draw that, and doodling a few things on it himself. Despite his excitement, he still found himself nervous, rehearsing things to say or do when he saw her. He debated entering unannounced like he normally did, but decided to knock instead, his knuckles tapping against the hard wood lightly. He didn't want to come in at a bad time, like the last time he visited.
When he didn't get a response, he wondered if she stepped out for a bit and moved to check his phone, only for the door to click open. His arm dropped back to his side as he peered down at the smaller brunette, a nervous smile playing on his lips. She seemed a little startled, probably surprised he got there so quickly.
"Um, hey, Pidge," he greeted, "Said you needed help?"
"Oh yeah," she responded, wide brown eyes peering up at him from behind a pair of large circular glasses. Lance noticed that they were slightly fogged up. Her short, brown hair was half wet, too, and she faintly smelled like soap. She must have taken a shower before he came, he pieced together. "Come in," she said, turning to head back deeper into her room and give him more space to enter.
The first thing Lance noticed was how clean the room was. Gone were the mountains of dirty laundry and trash they often had to walk around, making the room feels bigger than it usually did. He spent a good few seconds looking around in awe before turning to the room's inhabitant.
"You cleaned?" he asked incredulously.
"Thought I could clean it myself," Pidge nodded sheepishly, a hint of pride sparking up in her chest. She was glad she decided to clean her room. "I can't always rely on you to clean up after my mess."
"Well, you did a pretty good job," Lance replied, unable to stop himself from smiling as he inspected the floor, "I'm guessing you didn't ask me to come over to help you clean, then."
"Well, no," Pidge started, nervously glancing towards the bed. Although it was unnerving and a tad embarrassing to have her boyfriend praise her for cleaning her own room, she was more concerned about what she had planned. "I was kind of hoping you could help me build a fort?"
Lance whipped his head around to stare at her. "A fort?" he repeated, a brow raised skeptically.
"Like the ones made out of blankets and pillows," Pidge responded, clasping her hands behind her back and rocking back and forth on her heels, "I thought we could make one of those and watch some movies in it." She kept what she hoped was a pleasant smile on her face as she watched for his reaction.
At first, Lance was surprised, his eyebrows shooting up as soon as she finished speaking. Then, he was grinning and before the girl could react, his arms were wrapped around her waist and she was being lifted up. "Oh my God," she breathed, wrapping her arms round Lance's neck to support herself.
"I love you so much!" Lance squealed, swaying left and right as he squeezed the small girl, "Of course I'll help you build a fort!"
Pidge sighed in relief, allowing herself to finally let go of any thoughts that told her he would hate her idea. She relaxed as much as she could with the guy swinging her around, and found herself laughing. She missed his touch and how easily he made her happy.
"Okay, you big oaf," she patted his back, "Put me down so we can start building that fort."
Lance held her for a few more seconds before obliging, setting her back down on the ground.
They got to work on the fort. They took the pillows off the bed, and arranged them over the comforter they had laid down on the carpeted floor. That would be their base. Using the furniture around the area and some masking tape, they secured a few blankets over and around their home base. They made sure to make the inside as spacious as they could, and even left a blanket to serve as the door to their paradise.
Their fort looked like a misshapen tent sitting in the middle of the room, but they were proud of the fruits of their hard work. Lance pulled his phone out automatically, snapping more than a handful of pictures of their creation. They would be going on his Instagram later on, together with pictures he planned to take with the tiny genius he was proud to call his girlfriend.
"You done with you photo shoot yet?" Pidge asked, her arms full of snacks she'd prepared beforehand. Lance rolled his eyes in response, slipping his phone back in his pocket before turning face her. She never understood the importance of documenting things in photos unless it was technology and science related (and maybe Lance, too).
"Aww, you got us snacks, too," he cooed, moving to help her dump the bags inside the fort.
"Who watches movies without snacks? What am I, a monster?" she snorted, and they shared a laugh.
They crawled into the fort, and moved things around to make room for themselves. The unopened bags of food were pushed to the sides, and Pidge's laptop placed on top of a stack of books. The smaller girl worked on unfolding a blanket for them to settle under and let her boyfriend choose the movie.
"Hey, these are all the movies I asked you out to!" Lance exclaimed, his eyes scanning over the list of movies Pidge had downloaded. "I thought you hated most of these?"
"Yeah, well, I felt bad about saying no all the time," Pidge replied, huffing as she finally managed to unfold the blanket and drape it over their laps. "I thought they would be more enjoyable if I watched them with you."
"Man, I love you," Lance breathed, snaking his arms around her waist and pressing a kiss to her shoulder. He smiled, "You're so sweet."
"Please, you're the one who acts like he eats cake for all his meals," Pidge rolled her eyes, although it was hard to miss the redness of her cheeks even in the dimness of the fort.
"You're adorable," he said, laughing when he saw the girl scowl in response.
He pulled away for a moment to finish selecting a movie, deciding to pick one that he knew Pidge had been wanting to see for a while. For all her thoughtfulness this evening, he figured it was the least he could do for her.
He settled back into the pile of pillows as the movie began. His arm found its way back around Pidge's waist, and she leaned into him as they watched the camera move through a house submerged in water, 'The Shape of Water' appearing on screen. Pidge let out a hum of approval at his choice, and Lance smiled, resting his head on hers.
Author's Note
here have a deleted bit. didnt use it because i thought the one in the actual chapter fit her more. it comes after lance says "a fort?"
Afraid he would think it was a dumb idea, more words tumbled out before she could think twice about what she was saying. "You haven't been showing up and asking if I wanted to see a movie with you, and I knew it was my fault because I hurt you the last time you came. I was just so stressed out because there was something wrong with the codes of one of my major projects, and I yelled at you even though I shouldn't have, and even before that, I kept on rejecting your offers. It was kind of annoying, but when you stopped, I started missing you, and I thought we could just build a fort and settle down and watch some of those movies you wanted to see, y'know, like a movie marathon. Unless you don't want to?"
Her eyes grew wide when she realized what she had just said. She'd meant to play it cool, but she started panicking when she saw his expression. Her heart hammered in her chest, and she knew there was no turning back after saying all that.
"Wow," she heard Lance say, and she couldn't help stealing a glance at him.
Lance stood there, dumbfounded as he tried to process the word vomit Pidge had thrown at him.
