Chapter 2: Autocode

"Autocode represents a group of coding systems. The first autocode was created in order to simplify of the earliest programming, which were often abstruse and hard to interpret."

- x -

"Pidge!"

The girl nearly shot out of bed when her door slammed open. Blinking sleep out of her eyes, she muttered frantically, "Ah, what, what is it!?" A thin, blurry figure stood in her door frame. Pidge grabbed for her glasses, her hand knocking softly into a shiny metal lion sitting on her night stand.

"Hunk is back!" Lance exclaimed, darting further into her room, his lanky form becoming clear as Pidge slammed her glasses onto her face.

Huffing, she glared at the red paladin. "Yes, I know! Geez, are you trying to give me a heart attack, Lance?"

"No," He replied, huffing, "How do you know too? Why does everybody know before me!?"

"Because you're an idiot." Keith interrupted as he passed by the Pidge's door.

"Hey, you shut up, mullet head!" Pidge rolled her eyes and then rolled out of bed.

"Is there a reason you woke me, other than to shout at me?" She asked Lance (who was still staring down the hallway, cleary displeased).

"I was thinking we could go wake his ass up and -" Lance cut off mid-sentence when he looked back at her. A strange gurgling came out of his mouth before he pivoted around on one foot to face the hallway. "Jesus, woman!" He howled in shock.

Freezing, Pidge stared at him. "What, what is it now?" There was always something with Lance. He was easily the biggest drama queen on the team.

"Could you, like, put on clothes or something?" Lance said, fanning his face aggressively with his hand.

Pidge's face heated up immediately. "What! I have clothes on, you twat!"

"Yea but your top is pretty much see-through!" Lance yelled back.

What? Pidge had never quite felt her face get so hot. Was her top really that bad? She glanced down at the tank top. It was one of favorite new purchases, something she'd picked up at a store in town a week or two ago. It was a very light green and said in squarish letters, IT'S NOT EASY BEING GREEN.

"Look, change into something decent and then meet me in front of Hunk's room." The red paladin told her before stepping out of her room and slamming the door behind him.

He's crazy, Pidge concluded as she glared at the door. Her pajamas were fine… or at least, she really hoped they were. After all, Lance wasn't the only one who saw her in the pajamas. Somehow, thinking that Hunk might have saw more than he wanted to was worse than Lance seeing the same thing.

Shoving that thought out of her mind, Pidge ditched her pajamas in the hamper and quickly changed into jeans and a t-shirt.

Lance was waiting for her in the hallway upstairs, two Nerf water guns in his hands. Without bothering to explain, he handed one to Pidge. Pidge found herself grinning as she weighed the Nerf gun in her hand. Just like old times.

"Let's go." Lance whispered in a flat monotone.

They basically kicked the door in as they busted in, wielding their weapons and hooting like banshees. It was funny how coordinated the two were, despite all their time apart. Almost at the same time, they began firing at Hunk, who was sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

Hunk yelped as the water hit him. That wasn't surprising, as Pidge could feel the movement of ice cubes in the water storage of the gun. The water was definitely cold. Lance had really out done himself with this. "Dudes!" Hunk shrieked as he jumped out of bed.

And Pidge and Lance immediately started howling with laughter. Hunk was wearing a pair of boxers with the yellow lion all over them. In fact, Pidge was pretty sure she'd seen that same thing (along with all the colors of lions) at a space mall recently. "Dude, nice underwear!" Lance managed to sputter between his laughing.

Hunk was red in the face and grabbed his pillow. "Oh, you're going to regret this. Aaah!" With that, he ran at the two of them, flailing his pillow wildly. Lance took the majority of the hits, but one well aimed pillow swipe knocked Pidge, who was still uncontrollably laughing, off her feet.

"Comrade down! Comrade down! Retreat!" Lance screamed as he emptied the last bit of water from his gun. He then turned and took off down the hallway, yelling over his shoulder, "Welcome back Hunk! Put some pants on and come make us some pancakes!"

Pidge could barely breath, she was still laughing too hard. Clutching her stomach, she tried to calm herself down. Meanwhile, Hunk nudged her with his foot.

"Okay, haha, yes, it's so funny." Crossing his arms, he stated defensively, "They're really comfortable."

"D-do…." She could barely get out her question, "do you have one for every lion?" Pidge couldn't help herself. Hunk's face managed to get even rosier. He rolled his eyes, turned on heel, and walked over to his closet.

By the time Pidge managed to quell her laughter and sit up all the way, Hunk had pulled on a pair of pants and was yanking a shirt on.

Wiping at the tears that had welled in the corners of her eyes, Pidge put on her best angelic face and said, "Aw, I'm sorry Hunk, your boxers are cool."

"Yea, yea." Hunk huffed, his face still red as he stormed over to where she was still sitting on the ground. Without warning, he reached down and wrapped his arms around her, hefting her up and throwing her partially over his shoulder.

"Hey!" Pidge yelped before laughing even more.

With that, he started moving, carrying her out of his room and down the stairs.

Bright light was spilling to the kitchen when they entered and something was crackling as it cooked. Only, Pidge couldn't really see what was cooking, who was cooking, or who was even in the kitchen in in her current predicament. "Wow," Lance spoke up from the far side of the kitchen, "I didn't know you took prisoners, Hunk."

"Hey, sometimes you've gotta do what you gotta do." The yellow paladin replied with a shrug that nearly knocked Pidge off his shoulder.

"Good to see you again Hunk!" Coran interrupted their back and forth, "Take a seat, I'm in the middle of making everyone omelets. I'll make you one."

"Oh, I don't mind helping." Hunk said as he stabilized Pidge on his shoulder. She wasn't sure why he was so intent on torturing her (although it did highly amused her), but she wasn't some helpless damsel. She was the green paladin, after all! As Coran politely declined Hunks request and insisted that he was still focusing on improving his own culinary skill, she began to plot her escape.

First she wiggled back and forth, to try and destabilize him. Unfortunately, that didn't work. Hunk just grabbed her waist with both his hands and held her steady, as he continued his conversation with Coran about putting bell peppers in an omelet.

Huffing, Pidge dug through her memories for an idea. Then, it hit her. A dangerous grin grew on her face as she cracked her knuckles and readied for an assault.

Hunk was ticklish.

Not only did she dig her little fingers into his sides, but she made sure to under his shirt so he could further suffer from her rather cold hands. This tactic worked almost too well, with Hunk yelping and dropping Pidge off him. She might have hit the ground hard, but he grabbed her haphazardly on her descent. "Why are your fingers so freezing? That can't be normal." He huffed at her.

Pidge shrugged and laughed. She yanked herself out of his grasp and darted several steps away, plopping herself in a stool by the counter.

Finally, she could actually look around the kitchen. Lance was sitting in the stool next to her. Shiro, Allura, and Matt were sitting at the table nearby. She didn't miss the look that Matt gave her, and responded by sticking out her tongue at him and making a face. He doesn't know what he's talking about.

A moment later, Hunk plopped down in the stool next to hers. "By the way, great welcoming party, Lance. Super appreciated it." He spoke dryly, but there was a strong hint of amusement in his words. Pidge wondered if Hunk was feeling the same way she was, like yea, this was how things should be. Back to the way things were.

"You're welcome, bae." Lance's reply was completed with an over the top wink.

Coran's omelets were good, although Hunk whispered under his breath that they could use more salt and maybe some more cheese. It was hard to satisfy the food connoisseur.

In between bites, Hunk shared with the group how his last trip went. He had captured some very dangerous, explosive chemical from the clouds around some star. It hadn't been easy, as the area near to it had been crawling with leftover Galra forces. The other paladins had plenty of questions, but Pidge mostly just listened. She liked hearing Hunk tell his story, in the Hunk-like way that he does. It was also reassuring to her that, while he might have changed physically, he was still much the same as far as his mannerisms were concerned.

After breakfast, the two tech savvy coders headed to the barn. Pidge was super excited to show Hunk the new (partial) Castle of Lions. While only the framework and some of the rooms had been loosely constructed, it was still rather impressive already.

From the moment that the two of them stepped into the new Castle, she began pointing out everything and anything.

"This is our new iris scanner, it's really similar to some of the ones we've found on Galra ships. Only that, of course, I improved the -"

"- and these doors are a special, laser-repelling metal! It was Coran's idea but -"

"- I coded these lights! They're motion activated! The previous ones were activated by the door opening but I think this idea is better don't you? Anyways -"

"- you probably noticed we changed up the hallway. The new plan is more simplified so it's harder to get lost in our own hallways even if you really try -"

"- bedrooms are down there. Or, well, they will be, they're not built yet. I think that's gonna happen soon? Allura's been working on the bridge for awhile now so maybe she'll -"

Babbling was one of Pidge's habits. It didn't even occur to her that she was running her mouth an excess amount. To his credit, Hunk just patiently listened, looked around, and absorbed it in. Occasionally, he made a little comment here and there, but Pidge really didn't relent enough to let him say much.

By the time that reached the training hall, a few minutes later, Pidge had nearly winded herself jabbering on about the details of the new Castle. Taking a deep breath, she concluded her tour with, "And, this is the training hall. It's what I'm working on right now."

Hunk waited for a moment, almost as if he was checking to see if she really was done with her spiel. Then, he said with an easy smile, "Cool, show me you've got done so far!"

Thirty minutes later and Pidge had not only booted up the system, but also convinced Hunk to put on a prototype suit that she'd been working on.

Well, suit wasn't quite the right word for it. It was a rather simple set-up: it was composed of long black panels, a inch wide, that ran along the front and the back of the wearer's appendages, held in place by elastic straps. The panels along the arm were then additionally connected together by slightly wider panels that ran across the chest and back; the legs were attached to each other in a similar fashion.

"You sure this is safe?" He asked, nervously looking at the black panel that ran along the front of his right arm. "Like, 100% safe?"

"Basically." Pidge replied pleasantly. "So, I'm sure you remember that the training room took some of the biggest budget cuts."

"Yea, Keith wasn't happy about that."

"Right, well, I've been trying to work on a technical work around. We don't have the invisible walls or the practice drones, but my thought is that there's still a cheap way to simulate real combat." Pidge's fingers flew as she typed on the keyboard, navigating through the Altean computer screen. Two taps to the enter key initiated the start-up protocol. "Okay, so right now I'm starting up a simple hologram program."

The training room wasn't outfitted with an expensive hologram set-up by any means, but it could whip up a partially-translucent flying robot sentry without too much trouble. Pidge still hoped that they'd be able to make some more updates, both in hardware and software, to the hologram simulator, but for now, the basic hologram program worked fine enough.

Hunk eyed the robot sentry as it whizzed in circles around him.

"Am I supposed to, um, punch it?" He said, holding out his empty hands to emphasize his lack of weaponry.

Scratching the back of her head, Pidge admitted, "I kind of haven't gotten around to programming a weapon to interact with the hologram yet. So at the moment, there's no way to fight back. I've been focusing more on the suit cause… well, it's so cool!" Pidge beamed widely as she finished her sentence. She really hoped that Hunk could see the genius in the suit by the end of his trial.

"Okay, well, let's see what it can do." Hunk said, grinning at her antics.

Three more keyboard taps started up the attack protocol and turned on the suit. "Start by dodging the shots." Pidge told him.

So he did. The first few shots, Hunk easily rolled out of the way. Years as a paladin had made sure that he, like the rest of them, could dodge a laser blast.

"Okay, now let it hit you."

Hunk turned and squinted at her suspiciously before jumping out of the way of another blast. "Is this going to hurt?"

Pidge put both her hands up. "No, I swear it won't. The hologram's blasts are holographic just like it, and anyways, the suit's not about pain." Cause technically, discomfort is different from pain. Pidge didn't verbalize that thought. She didn't want to give Hunk a reason to chicken out of being her guinea pig.

Shrugging, Hunk accepted her promise. The next two shots hit him square in the chest. Each shot was accompanied by a cartoonish beep, which was a sound effect that Pidge had stolen from a Mario game.

Pidge tapped pause on the application and the little sentry robot frozen in place. Tentatively, Hunk moved his arms and legs, testing out the suite. "It… gets tighter?" He guessed. Pidge shook her head. "No, okay… Wait, it restrict moments. It becomes more rigid!" He guessed right and Pidge gave him a big grin.

"Yea! Every shot you take makes it harder to bend your arms and legs. It basically gives you an impediment for getting shot. Kind of like if you got injured during battle."

"That's pretty brilliant, Pidge!" That was exactly what Pidge wanted to hear. To say she was pleased would be a severe understatement.

Bouncing on her toes, she asked Hunk, "Want to keep fighting it?"

"Sure, but give me a few more. One robot is too easy."

Ten robots was definitely enough. Not thirty seconds after Pidge had dramatically upped the difficulty, Hunk was swearing and jumping about wildly. "You asked for it!" She reminded him, chortling.

"Well this wasn't what I meant -" He didn't manage to finish his complaint, as half of the bots all fired at the same time. Hunk jumped back ungracefully and tripped over his own feet, rolling backwards.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP.

Caught up in her own laughter, Pidge could barely concentrate enough to pause the program.

"Yea yea." Hunk huffed from where he was laying, locked in place by the suite. "Like you could do better."

"Oh, I won't argue with you on that. But, that was pretty funny." Pidge replied as she clicked through the program until she found the unlock command for the suit. She ran the command and glanced up at Hunk… who was still laying on the ground, his arms twisted awkwardly.

She waited a moment, waited for him to start moving.

Hunk cleared his throat loudly, then commented, "Any time Pidge. This suit isn't exactly the most comfortable thing." After a moment, he added almost shyly, "No offense. It's still really cool."

Oh no. Gulping, Pidge ran the command prompt again… and it still didn't work. Which didn't make any sense! It worked the last time she ran it! Then again, she had made some changes to the suit's coding. Not major changes, but even small change could possibly interfere with the command prompt.

"Um… hold on Hunk. Give me a second."

From his position on his back, Hunk's head shot up, peering over his body at her. "Why don't I like the sound of your voice? Oh my god Pidge, please tell me I'm not trapped in this thing."

"You're not trapped!" She snapped back, chewing her lower lip nervously as she opened her source code and began to key through it. "I just… am not having any success with the release command."

"That means I'm trapped!" Hunk howled, letting his head fall back down. "Pidge! Shouldn't that have been something you tested before I put this on!?"

"I did test it beforehand..." Pidge whimpered. That comment stung a bit. Pidge worked frantically through the code, trying to find out what was causing the malfunction. "I updated the code a bit yesterday and I don't know, now it won't work."

Hunk was silent for a long moment. Finally, he sighed, "Ah, look, I ah… I didn't mean to snap at you. If I have to be stuck like this forever, then I accept that. Although, you're going to have to cook and feed me. Which means following my directions to the tee! I need an acceptable amount of cheese in my omelet, damn it."

Rolling her eyes, Pidge smiled a little and snapped at him, "Oh shush you, you aren't trapped. There's manual snaps on the suit. I'm not dumb."

Scavenging through the code was proving utterly useless. She would have to do some diagnostics and comparisons with the code prior to her last edits versus the newer version of the code. Or maybe just start over from the last update. Regardless, Pidge ditched her computer screen and hustled over to Hunk's side.

He raised an eyebrow at her quizzically as she eased herself down next to him.

"Hold on, I'm going to roll you onto your side."

"Not really sure what I'm supposed to hold - eep!" Being pulled onto his side kept Hunk from finishing his sarcastic comment.

Her fingers ran over the black plastic panel that ran over the back of his left bicep. Where is it? She thought to herself. I know I put that safety released here. As she traced her fingers along the sides of the panel, she made a mental note to make the safety release an bright orange color or something future suits.

She noticed Hunk swallowing in an anxious manner, but she didn't say anything about it. She was pretty sure he was nervous about the suit, although it did cross her mind that maybe he found it weird to be curled around her, locked in place. Nah, we're buddies, this is no big deal.

"Do you know what you're doing?" Hunk said softly. Why he was practically whispering, Pidge wasn't sure. It was just the two of them in the training room, after all.

"Mostly." She admittedly, speaking just as softly as he did.

There! Tucked along the top, near the corner of the panel. It flexed forward as she dug her fingers between it and Hunk's skin. Only, as she pulled hard, trying to get it to pop, Hunk rocked forward.

"Whooaa." He said as Pidge took her hands away, causing him to rock backwards again.

"Shoot." She huffed, frowning as she thought. "How much movement do you have in your shoulder?"

"Um, not a lot?" Hunk replied.

That was better than none. "Okay, I'll be gentle."

"Gentle!? With what!?" Rather than explaining, Pidge carefully grabbed his left arm and pulled it so that it was further extended. As she did so, Hunk whimpered little ows and Pidge responded in kind with little I'm sorrys.

Finally, she got it so his hand was right at her hip. Scooting forward, she pressed his hand against the side of her hip.

"What you are doing?" Hunk nearly hissed, his face going bright red.

Confused, Pidge apologized again and then explained, "I'm just propping you against me. That you don't roll around when I'm trying to undo the safety latches." She wasn't sure why it was such a big deal. With Hunk's looks, she was positive he had to have put his hands on girls before. Probably many girls… hm. That was a weird and kind of unpleasant thought for Pidge.

In an attempt to lighten the mood, Pidge added, "Don't worry, I don't have cooties."

"Oh great." Hunk responded dryly, his voice a pitch or two higher than usual.

This tactic worked well. With Hunk bracing his hand against her, Pidge was able to pop all three latches on the plastic. It eased its grip on Hunk's arm and she was able to pull it off.

Flexing his arm, Hunk sighed in relief.

"Okay, now, I need you to hold onto me again so I can get your leg." Pidge instructed as she stretched itself partially over him so that she could access his left leg.

"Grab… um, where?" Hunk responded, eyeing her body carefully, as if it was some sort of bomb that might go off. Scoffing, Pidge grabbed his hand and place it on her hip. He gulped again.

"This won't hurt." She huffed at him, frustrated that he was still nervous about her suit. Now, she'd be the first to admit that this wasn't the most optimal way to get it off. It was downright awkward and she was trying not to think about she was leaned over him. It was also strangely distracting to have his warm hand against her hip. Strange, but not unpleasant.

It took her almost a minute to find the latches on the leg panels. A few quick yanks and she had the leg released. Hunk carefully slit his leg out of it and tried to sit up. Only, he could only pick himself up a few inches before the panels on his right hip stopped him from leaving up too far.

"Hold on, roll over." Pidge commanded. Hunk whined but did as he was told. Crawling around to his other side, Pidge repeated the process of popping open the latches on his right arm and then his right leg. As soon as the suit was all the way off, Hunk sat all the way up and rubbed his legs.

Curling up legs up in front of her, Pidge stared at Hunk from behind her knees. "Sorry." She muttered softly, her glasses askew from being shoved so close to her knees.

Hunk leaned closer to her and his expression softened. "It's fine. But let's get Lance to test that out in the future." He reached forward, almost tentatively, and pushed his fingers into her wavy brown hair.

Pidge was no foreigner to getting her hair ruffled. She blew a raspberry at Hunk before burying her face all the way against her knees.

"Ah, come on Pidge." She peeked upward and found Hunk's face about two inches from hers, his gaze both concerned and amused.

Then something happened. Some part of her brain malfunctioned. Something in her source code stopped working like it should. It was hard to pinpoint, this glitch, hard to explain. But suddenly, strongly, Pidge wanted Hunk to lean forward and close the space between them. She wanted to feel his lips on hers. There was something about his gaze, something about his dark, golden brown eyes…. Pidge was left, frozen, stuck, as empty as a 404 error.

Then, thankfully, a strain of logical thought broke through and overrode that error. Blushing deeply, she scooted back an inch or two and managed to make her voice work. "Ah, yea, what?"

Hunk inspected her carefully and didn't reply right away. Finally, he spoke slowly, tentatively, "Do you... want me to look at that code?"

"Oh, yea, that'd be good." She replied, breathing deeply as she attempted to calm herself.

The next few hours were much more normal. She and Hunk gradually went to the code bit by bit and he helped her catch some inconsistencies. Together, they got the release feature fully functioning and even began working on some programing for how each limp responded differently to being hit.

It was Shiro who came down to find them. "Hey, Coran is making a big lunch. Why don't you guys come have some?"

"Coran's making lunch? Ah! I could have helped! Maybe I still can…!" Hunk exclaimed as he rushed out of the training room. Pidge and Shiro followed at his heels, both smiling in amusement.

Lunch was good, even though Hunk hadn't been given a chance to help.

Team Voltron sat in a large circle outside on a huge blanket ("I found it at a, um, what is was it, a beetle market!" said Coran) with a big tray of sandwiches in the middle of the blanket. Lance was relatively critical of these sandwiches at first. Keith flicked him in the side of the head when he tried to ask, are you sure you didn't burn them this time?

"Just eat, stupid." The half Galra boy growled at the red paladin.

Other than that, their impromptu picnic was going pretty well. As they feasted, Allura explained she felt like they needed to do something to celebrate now that Hunk was back. She'd heard about picnics on some of the American TV shows she'd been watching and it had seemed perfect.

"Besides, we can all go swimming afterward!" Allura added cheerfully.

"That's a great idea!" Lance quickly agreed, his eyes gleaming as he beamed at Allura. Beside him, Keith scowled at Lance, then scowled down at his sandwich.

Watching all this, Pidge wondered what was going on in Keith's head. Did he not like swimming? Was he tired of Lance's fruitless romantic pursuits, in the same way that she was tired of her own brother's pursuits? Before she could wonder about it more, Matt started to speak.

"It is sure nice to have you back, Hunk." Her brother said. There was a subtle undertone to his voice, something devious. Pidge narrowed her eyes at her brother. Don't you dare, she tried to mentally communicate with him, whatever you're planning, don't.

Unfortunately, Matt and Pidge weren't the kind of siblings who could communicate mentally.

"Haha, thanks Matt." Hunk responded as he reached for another sandwich.

"Yea, well, it's just too bad that Pidge seems commandeering you entirely today. The rest of us would like to spend time with you too, y'know?"

Pidge didn't want to see Hunk's reaction. The malfunction resurfaced in her thoughts, causing a heat to rush to her face. Before anyone could say anything more, she chucked her half eaten sandwich at her brother. The sandwich pretty much exploded on Matt, showering him with ham and lettuce.

There, that handled that.

The circle of paladins went silent, other than a few soft chortles from Keith.

It was Hunk who broke the silence, speaking cautiously. "Well, I only just got back. I'm sure everyone here will get a little Hunk time… um, eventually."

Matt picked the pieces of lettuce and ham off himself while staring down Pidge. Then, he dared to open his mouth, probably to say something just as dumb.

Violence between the Holt siblings, even in their late teens, was nothing abnormal to either. Pidge snatched up another sandwich and was about to peg Matt again.

It was the firm command to stop from Shiro and the cry of concern for the sandwich from Coran that got Pidge to stop. "Pidge, let's not forget that we're a team, and teams… well, respect each other. By not throwing sandwiches at each other." Shiro said in his authoritative yet still polite tone.

"Okay, fine, dad." Pidge huffed with obvious sarcasm, crossing her arms.

The rest of lunch pass without issue.

Well, unless you count the impromptu sandwich eating contest as an issue.

It was almost impressive, how many sandwiches Lance and Hunk could swallow down each. Coran was thrilled they liked his sandwiches so much (Pidge was pretty sure he misunderstood the why behind the contest). Most of the team was mildly amused with the show, with the exception of Keith. He sat there pinching the bridge of his nose, occasionally reminding Lance that he was a total idiot.

Lance didn't seem to mind. Rather, he made a point of chewing louder every time Keith said something.

The contest didn't ultimately have a winner because they ran out of sandwiches.

That was probably for the better, Pidge pointed out to the group, because it would sure be hard to swim if you were busy vomiting up excess sandwiches. She looked pointedly at Hunk when she spoke.

"What? I didn't eat that much… and I don't vomit as much anymore, anyways."

"Suuure." She replied, drawing out her response as she helped Allura and Shiro gather up the picnic stuff back into the basket.

As they headed back to the house, Hunk and Lance fell into step with Pidge. She glanced sideways at them. Here they were, years after their brief foray at the Garrison's academy, still side by side. A trio.

Although they were much more than a trio. Her gaze shifted to the rest of her group. Allura, Shiro, Coran, and Matt. Her Voltron family.

She loved each and every one them.

Pidge swung her hands as she walked. When the back of hand brushed against Hunk's hand, something once again short circuited within her mind. Covertly, she peered out of the corner of her eye at him as an unwelcome warmth spread across her cheeks.

What was wrong with her?

- x - x - x -

A/N: Space dad says no throwing sandwiches.