The two newly-reunited siblings were sitting across from each other at the top of one of the castle's viewing towers. The chamber was small and cramped, but they were surrounded by stars in every direction.
They'd sat there in silence for a near eternity, too dumbfounded and emotional to know where to start.
"Why'd you come after me?" Matt finally asked.
"You say that as if I'd take Garrison's bullshit excuses as fact," Pidge said.
"Well, maybe you should have. You'd be safer that way."
"Matt, I'm not a kid anymore. I'm old enough to pick my own battles and defend myself without having to hide behind my family's decisions," she said.
"You could get killed, Katie. I chose to go on that mission to Kerberos for exploration purposes and was well aware of the risk of not coming back home. You, on the other hand, came out here on impulse without thinking the consequences through."
Pidge took a good look at Matt. She found it hard to believe that these words were coming from him, the person who would do anything for family without a second thought. He should've known better than anyone how difficult of a position she was forced into.
"I didn't choose to get myself stuck in outer space, but I did choose to stay. You have no idea how close I was to quitting the team. Even if I had left Voltron, I wasn't going back home without finding you and Dad first."
More silence.
"And Mom? Have you stopped to think about how your absence is affecting her? She's probably worried sick about you, if he even knows you're alive. If you weren't staying for yourself you should've at least done it for her."
"She knew I was going to go look for you guys eventually. Besides, she knows I can take care of myself."
Matt ran his fingers through his hair, his frustration showing itself through his actions. "She trusts you to clean and cook, not fight a goddamn war. You can't expect them to give out permission slips for this kind of shit."
"You're acting as if I'm the bad guy around here," Pidge exclaimed, "when we both know that if our places had been switched you'd do the same thing for me in a heartbeat." Tears were already prickling the edges of her eyes. "I wasn't going to just give up on you, not when there was a chance you might've still been alive."
Matt released a sad chuckle. "So I guess this means you're still a hot headed idiot, huh?"
"Not as big of one as you are," Pidge muttered.
Her hands were starting to shake. She reached to her face to push her glasses up out of habit, only to remember they were no longer there.
"Want these back?" Matt asked, taking his glasses off.
"What? No, they're yours," she said. "Besides, they're not even my own prescription."
"Here, take 'em. I don't need them anyways."
"Matt, you're literally as blind as a mole without those. My eyesight sucks, but I can do without."
He scratched the back of his neck. He suddenly seemed oddly fixated on his shoes.
He was only ever this awkward when he was thinking of a way to say something without angering her.
"I, uh, I-I was going to tell you eventually, but I guess now's as good a time to say it as any."
"Tell me what?" Pidge asked warily.
Matt closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "You're probably gonna kill someone over this," he said under his breath.
Pidge let out a gasp when he opened them. His irises were glowing. They looked as if a hot stove were trapped inside of them, the golden tint of his eyes no longer his.
"Matt, w-what- how-" she reached out at first, but then retracted her arm in...fear?
"When I got out of the cryo pod, I couldn't see because these things couldn't process of the sudden change in light, not because of my shitty nearsightedness," he explained. "The glasses helped reflect some of that light while I got used to it, but I can see fine on my own now."
He blinked again and the glowing disappeared, as if it had never been there in the first place.
"I guess Shiro wasn't the only one those bastards stole from."
At this point Pidge was crying, her hands to her mouth in a poor effort to hide the hitches in her sobs. He felt a pang of guilt, but it was beter to tell her now than have her find out on her own.
"But that's not all, folks," he said bitterly. He pulled up his left pant leg to reveal a metal prosthetic, its design and metal matching Shiro's arm.
"When I get my hands on Zarkon, I swear I'm going to make him pay for all of this," Pidge said between tears.
Matt picked up his glasses again. He gently pulled Pidge's hands away from her mouth and set the glasses in them, wrapping her fingers around the frame.
"I know you want to keep me safe, but sometimes things are going to happen to us no matter what." He could still feel her shaking. "Please, promise me you won't get yourself too tangled up in this mess. I don't know if I could live with myself if any of this happened to you."
Pidge let go if the glasses and her brother's hands to wrap him in an embrace. Her crying had broken into an ugly mess of tears and sobs again.
"I-I promise I'll keep myself safe, b-but I'm not going to l-let those stupid Galra get away with any of this. I need t-to stop them before they keep hurting a-anyone else like this."
For once Matt didn't argue with Pidge's stubbornness. In all honesty a part of him wanted revenge, too. And as long as he could get his sister back home safely, he supposed he could take a few detours along the way.
The two stayed in the tower for the rest of the night, and at one point Pidge fell asleep in Matt's arms. He let her be and tried to relish in his first night of near-restful sleep.
Unfortunately some say optimism is a trait of the foolish.
Slow but steady.
Canon says that Pidge kept the lenses on Matt's glases, so I figured that they at least had similar eyesight problems, else she'd probably trip every time she tried to walk. Either that or the lenses were fake, but then where's the fun in that?
I'll try to put the next chapter up soon, but AP testing is coming up so no guarantees :(