Pidge let out a sigh, frustrated by her recent lack of progress on finding her family. Maybe it's time for a break, she thought, but immediately fought back against the idea in favour of turning back to her laptop and starting up a new search with a broader range. Since the paladins were en route to the next planet they hoped to form an alliance with, Pidge had nothing else to be doing anyways. Training for the day had been completed hours ago and she had performed any necessary maintenance on the lions right after that. Sure, she had missed lunch and dinner, but she hadn't really been hungry anyways. She was pretty sure there was a snack bar in her desk somewhere that she could eat sometime.

The green paladin glanced down to the corner of her screen, tiredly noting that she had been working for almost 8 hours already; it wasn't a new record, but that didn't mean it wasn't exhausting. Her failure to find anything on her family tended to drain any energy she had, especially after this long in one day. Her thoughts returned to sleep again, and as hard as she fought she really wanted to call it a night. I could just get up earlier tomorrow, run another search before training, Pidge mused, pushing back the fog that was clouding her mind. But that means another day that I didn't make any progress…

Suddenly Pidge was startled into alertness by the sound of the workshop door opening. From where she sat at her desk, she could see that Hunk was the one who had come in, bearing a plate full of food and a glass of water in his hands. Although she was tired, Pidge managed to crack a smile at the yellow paladin – he just had a way of lighting up a room with a smile of his own, and he was wearing one now as he walked over to Pidge's desk.

"Hey Pidge," Hunk called out softly. Despite the fact that they were well away from anyone who might be sleeping, the quietness of the mostly empty workshop made it feel as if voices should be kept down. "I noticed you didn't come by for lunch or supper, so I thought I'd bring some food down here for you."

Pidge grinned wider at the prospect of food – she really was hungry, now that she thought about it. "Thanks, Hunk", she responded. "Sorry about that, I guess I just got caught up in my work. I didn't mean to ignore you guys for so long".

Hunk chuckled quietly at that, not surprised at all that the resident tech genius had gotten distracted again. At least it had only been eight hours this time instead of fifteen, when Pidge had missed two meals and stayed up until what would be considered 2 am on Earth and then been grumpy and short-tempered for the entire next day. He placed the plate and glass down on one of the few spots on Pidge's desk not covered in parts and in-progress projects, then pulled over a chair.

"You know, Pidge," Hunk said, "you're allowed to take breaks, right? Your family wouldn't want you to burn yourself out for their sake."

Pidge looked away from her screen at that and sighed again, this time in tiredness and resignment. She knew that, of course, but she couldn't help it. They were her family, after all, and no one else could do this or really even wanted to do this. The other paladins would help her when they could, but their main concern was the universe in general – not just her father and brother.

"I know," she replied, absently poking at her food with a fork Hunk had brought along.

Hunk hummed quietly, lost in thought for a moment. "Why don't you head to bed after you finish eating? I know you're already kinda behind on your sleep, and you look exhausted."

Pidge looked up at her friend, ready to fight to stay here for just a little while longer – "I need to finish this search, and maybe – "

"Pidge," Hunk interrupted, "I can make sure this search finishes and start another one after that if you want. Just get some rest." He grinned at her then, trying to lighten the mood. "After all, we don't want our tech genius to get sick because she was working too hard!"

Normally Pidge would have complained or argued, but she had to admit that she was exhausted - it had been a long day. So instead she sighed again, and then went back to her meal, enjoying Hunk's company. The yellow paladin, satisfied that his mission of getting Pidge to take a break had been successful, entertained the younger paladin with stories of his adventures in the kitchen that afternoon. There had been a food goo battle between him and Coran and the winner – Hunk – got to make dinner for that day. Pidge giggled at her friend's recounting of the events, secretly thinking that Coran had gone a bit easier on Hunk because everyone, Coran included, knew that Hunk's cooking was the best.

After she finished eating, Pidge gave Hunk a quick rundown on the search protocols and the parameters she had already tried that day, as well as a suggestion for what to run on the next search. Hunk nodded along, and reassured his friend that he had it all covered before shooing her out of the workshop and off to sleep. The yellow paladin hummed to himself once Pidge was gone, grateful that she had left mostly without argument.

Two hours later, Hunk had finished the searches and was feeling ready to head off to bed himself. Before leaving the workshop, he decided to start up one last search sequence so that Pidge could take a look at the results when she inevitably woke up early and wanted to get some work done before training. Happy that he had been able to help out the little sister of the team, Hunk sleepily trudged off to his room.

Hunk was woken up abruptly the next morning by someone tackling him with a hug, and he almost fell off his bed in surprise. Opening his eyes blearily, the yellow paladin noticed it was Pidge who had attacked him, and she had a huge smile plastered on her face.

"THANK YOU HUNK THANK YOU SO MUCH YOU'RE AMAZING AHHHHHHH –"

"Woah, Pidge, slow down!" Hunk called out, trying to sit up with Pidge still hugging him and yelling in his ear. "What happened?"

"YOUR SEARCH WORKED HUNK I GOT A LEAD ON MY FAMILY!" Pidge screeched, now bouncing up and down in excitement on the bed beside Hunk. "Your last search! There was security footage that had my brother in it!"

Hunk, thoroughly invested in Pidge's mood now, also started cheering. "Awww heck yeah, I'm so glad it worked! Did you tell Shiro?"

Pidge couldn't stop grinning, even as she shook her head. "Naw, I wanted to tell you first. Let's go tell him now!" And then she was grabbing Hunk's arm, dragging him out of his room before he even changed out of his pajamas. Hunk let himself be pulled along, and as they raced through the Castle he sent a quick thought towards home and imagined just how awesome it was going to feel when he could see his own family again.