Hello again! First off, I'd like to apologize for such a long wait! I really struggled with this chapter in all honesty... But hey, it's here! I know that it's a bit short, but there's a reasonable explanation for that. I'm already working on the next chapter and it should be up much sooner than this one was!

Once again, I own nothing here except Riko and the idea/writing (and a few other minor characters) everything else belongs to Dreamworks Studios !

~LennRii

"Another day, another patrol…" Pidge muttered, once again finding herself stuck in the dusty, cramped streets of the market once again. "Good morning Miss Arkurem." She greeted with a smile as she walked past one of the stalls. Miss Arkurem looked up,smiled back, and waved, her pink eyes shining with pleasure, before returning to what she had been doing before, which happened to be arranging some plant life in pots and vases. Pidge sighed as she continued along her patrol route through the marketplace. It wasn't as busy as usual today due to the fact that there was a large sporting event down at the pier had the attention of most of the population. She couldn't help but chuckle at the thought of Keith trying to deal with such an event, that place was going to be a madhouse. Now he'll get a taste of what she has to deal with every day. Of course, that didn't mean that the market was free of crowds or problems, but it was definitely less work than usual, which meant that her mind would frequently begin to wander on the job, and it always went to Riko and the incident from the previous day.

"Why am I still thinking about him? He's just some stranger that helped me out one time, it's not like… It's not like we're friends." She bit her lip and cast her gaze up to the fiery colored sky above. Black, whispy tendrils that reminded her mildly of clouds back on Earth were floating on the horizon, where two moons were slowly lowering out of sight. Little glowing insects traveled through the air in clusters, forming dozens of beautiful shapes and patterns that glowed with a faint turquoise hue in the morning sun.

Pidge found herself absently reaching a hand up towards the expanse above before returning her attention back to her work with a wistful sigh. "It'd be nice to be friends with him though. I don't really have many of those anymore, especially with how protective the guys can get." She huffed and crossed her arms in a momentary pout before returning back to the job at hand.

Most of the day went by without much trouble or event and once again, Keith didn't stop by to check in, though it made sense with the event going on at the pier, so she didn't hold it against him. After looping her route on repeat with not disruption for most of the day, someone finally stopped her.

"Excuse me, Green Paladin?" A soft voice asked. Pidge stopped and looked down to see a small, fish-like, blue-skinned woman tugging at her leg. She was no taller than Pidge's waist, even with the brightly colored fin atop her head. "Could you please help me?" Pidge had to fight to hide the smile that threatened to appear on her lips, there was finally something to do.

"Of course! What do you need?" Within seconds of the last word leaving her mouth, the fish woman proceeded to grab her arm and lead her through the marketplace to a little shop on the corner, one of the few indoor shops in the area. The woman then pulled her into the shop and over to one of the display shelves, where she stopped and pointed one of her scaly, webbed fingers towards the top. Pidge's eyes followed her finger and landed upon a packaged box at the very top.

"Would you be willing to crab that for me? As you can tell, I'm not all that tall…"

"Of course, don't worry." Pidge assured her, the she was internally groaning and cursing her own shortness. There was no way she'd be able to reach that box without a fair amount of difficulty. Humming in thought, she took a step back to assess the situation. While she could use her bayard and get the box with ease, she didn't want to risk damaging the contents, so that was out of the question. Climbing the shelf maybe? No, there's no way it could support her weight, it was barely supporting its own contents as it was. That's when it hit her: she'd have to jump. Pidge huffed in irritation, but proceeded towards the shelf and began jumping. She wasn't sure how long it was, but she knew it wasn't long after that she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry miss, I assure you that I-" She started, but her words fell short when she realized that it wasn't the fish woman holding her, but instead a familiar purple-skinned man in a brown cloak. "Riko."

"Hey." He smiled coolly, his crystal eyes shining. "Want help with that?" He asked, gesturing towards the box. Before Pidge could respond, he was already handing the box to the woman. "There you go." He nodded to her before making his way back out the door. Pidge furrowed her brows and waved to the woman before following him out.

"Hey!" She called out after him. "What was that all about?"

Riko stopped, allowing her to catch up with him. "What do you mean? I was helping you."

"Well yeah, I know that," Pidge sighed with a shake of her head, "I mean why? And what were you doing there? I didn't see you there earlier."

"I just like to help." Riko shrugged, a small grin on his face. "And I mean, you make it pretty easy to help you. As to what I was doing there, I just happened to be passing by when I saw you hopping like a merko bean in the silken rain."

"A merko… What?" Pidge raised an eyebrow at the man. He couldn't help but laugh at her confused expression.

"It's a common phrase back where I'm from. It basically just means jumping a lot."

"I-I see…" She responded, casting her gaze away to hide her embarrassment. She always understood that type of stuff, she was always the smart one, but for once, someone proved her wrong. It was a bit strange, especially since he wasn't mocking her or rubbing in her face like she was used to when she was, on a rare occasion, wrong.

"Hey, don't be embarrassed," Riko placed a comforting hand on her head, "most people don't understand it."

"Yeah, whatever." Pidge huffed, brushing his hand off. "I wasn't embarrassed, just… just tired, that's all. I am curious though, where are you from? I've never heard that expression before, and believe me, I've heard a lot of things."

Riko laughed. "Well considering your line of work, I'm sure you have." The two had begun to walk once again, though the route was different from Pidge's normal routine route.

"So, you gonna answer my question?"

"Hm, maybe." Riko teased with a smirk.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Pidge questioned with a slight pout.

"Y'know Green Paladin, you sure like to ask a lot of questions, but I don't know if I've heard you answer any yet." He continued to smirk, waving a finger in the air in a 'no-no' gesture.

"Okay, fine." She shot back, stopping and taking a seat atop an old barrel near the fountain at the center of the market. "What do you wanna know?" Riko folded his arms and sat on top of a nearby crate, a small grin dancing on his lips.

"Well, how about we start with the other Paladins. What're they like?"

"Uhm," Pidge paused for a moment, trying to think of what to say, "well they're all pretty different and unique in their own way. There's Hunk, the Yellow Paladin, he's pretty much the sweetheart of the group, y'know always concerned about everyone and everything. Oh, and he likes to cook! Let's see… There's the Blue Paladin, Lance, and, well, don't get me started on him. He's a huge flirt, and I mean huge. Put any remotely attractive girl in front of him and he's gone. Oh, and Keith, the Red Paladin! No offense to him, but he's a bit of a grump, I was actually convinced that he was emo for a while. He and Lance are pretty much always fighting with each other. And then there's our leader, the Black Paladin-"

"Pidge!" Her explanation was cut short by a very familiar voice calling her name.

"Shiro…" She sighed as her eyes landed on the Black Paladin, who was weaving his way towards where the two. "What're you doing here? Shouldn't you be monitoring the capitol?" She asked once he had reached them.

"Yeah, but I got a little off time thanks to the event so I thought I'd check on you, especially after what happened yesterday."

Pidge's brow furrowed. "I thought we dropped that."

"We did, don't worry." Shiro nodded reassuringly. He was about to say something else, when his eyes finally fell upon her companion and quickly narrowed. "Who's this?"

"This is Riko, the one from yesterday, the one that helped me with the riot." Pidge informed him with a shy smile.

"I see." Shiro frowned, his eyes still narrowed. Something was familiar about this hooded man, but he just couldn't place what it was. "Well, I better go, I'll see you tonight Pidge. Be careful."

"You too." She waved, watching as her leader left the market.

"I don't think he likes me…" Riko commented after a moment.

"No, I'm sure that he's just in a bad mood is all." Pidge hummed, though even she wasn't so sure.

So... What'd you think? I know it's a bit of a cliffhanger, sorry bout that! Don't worry though, as I said, I'm already working on the next chapter so you won't have to wait all that long!

Anyways, thank you for reading!

Until the next chapter~