Well.
Pidge had been trying to deny it for weeks now, but with that, she could no longer hide from the issue.
Shiro wasn't himself.
But first, damage control. Lance, clearly shaken and looking small, was still standing where Shiro had left him. Lance had always looked up to Shiro, so for him to reprimand Lance so brutally in front of the others, including Lotor, would be a particularly harsh blow to his fragile sense of self-worth.
Looking dazed, Lance's gaze skipped across the room, catching on Pidge, who was intently staring at him. Locking eyes, she subtly indicated that he should meet her outside. He frowned, eyes still clouded. Pidge could practically see the question marks dancing around him.
Right, this wasn't Keith, this was Lance. While her perfectly sensible non-verbal communication was easily understood by her former Red comrade in arms, the current Red Paladin wasn't on the same wavelength. Time for the old-fashioned method.
Pidge spoke up, drawing the attention of the room. "Well, I'm going to see if I can find anything that might be useful for establishing Lotor's claim in the records of Galra tradition stored on the Castle. Although, those are probably out of date." She pretended to consider where she could get current data.
The Prince of Darkness cut in. "That won't be necessary. While my primary focus has been Altean culture, I have not neglected the history of my Galran side, dark and gruesome though it may be. I studied it nevertheless in hopes that I may eventually turn our empire from its dark course and lead it to embrace the ways of other cultures." He turned away, saying, "Allura, this may interest you. An ancient Galran tradition echoes the Faye Caos of the Altean peoples. Do you think…" Pidge tuned him out and returned to the issue at hand. "Maybe I can update our weapons systems instead, in case this turns into another firefight. I was thinking of researching the different weapon types that have been formed before by Voltron and what scenarios we could use them in, especially after that sea battle beneath the ice on Frazil." Stars in her eyes, she spun on Lance, grabbing his arms and giving him her best puppy dog eyes. "Lance, could I borrow you for a bit? I want to ask about your connection to Red and how you feel when we're forming different weapons, maybe look into why your weapon changed?"
Caught off guard, he rubbed the back of his neck and looked off to the side, unable to stand the cuteness full on. It wasn't often that Pidge included him in her projects or sought his advice on anything. Not since, well, the incident. "Umm, sure Pidge, I'll do whatever I can." Suddenly suspicious, he narrowed his eyes at her. "This isn't you trying to get me back for last time I helped you, is it? Because I really am not in the mood." The puppy dog eyes disappeared in an instant as her oh so familiar annoyed face reappeared. "No, Lance! I'm not that stupid." Her gaze turned sly, making his blood run cold. "My true revenge plan is much more devious than a simple experiment. You'll never see it coming, but it has nothing to do with this research project." As if a switch had been thrown, she was back to straight sunshine again as she began tugging on his arm. "Well, let's get going then!
Allura was discussing tactics with Lotor, but Hunk swung his head and looked askance at Pidge.
"The battle at Frazil was phoebs ago. Why are you starting research on it now?"
She began pulling Lance toward the door, eyes wide as she laughed a bit manically. "Ah, I've had so much to do I haven't had the time until now and we've got a few quintants until the Kral Zera, so it's got to be now! Anyway bye!" In a flash Lance and Pidge were out in the corridor.
Pidge dropped the sunshine façade once they had left everyone else's line of sight. Checking her wrist display, she noted that the tracker she had placed on Shiro's arm a few phoebs ago indicated that he was on the training deck. This was fine, as they would be heading in the opposite direction.
Lance was confused.
First Pidge had been acting like the personification of sunshine, which was out of character unless she was inspecting some new alien technology or visiting Olkarion. Then she did a complete 180 once they had left the observation deck and started acting like they were running for their lives from a pack of wolves, if you could consider their friends to be wolves. Running from Lotor Lance could understand – the man was a menace, honestly - but was Pidge actually running from Hunk?
Pidge turned suddenly, pulling him with her. "Uh, Pidge? I know you're a genius and all, but I'm pretty sure this doesn't lead to your lab."
"Give the boy a prize," she muttered. "Listen Lance, I'll explain everything in a bit. Just let me get to a safe location first."
After several quintants, they were deep within the hallways of the Castle in a section Lance was pretty sure he had never been in before. The hallways were dustier and the light changed to follow them as they moved, leaving the rest of the area in darkness.
At a random panel In the wall, Pidge stopped and motioned for him to stop as well. "Hold still." Her wrist interface suddenly lit up with a glowing green light that shot toward him. "Aaaah!" He jumped back, startled. "What is that? Is it going to erase my memories?" Pidge rolled her eyes. "Laaance, I asked you to keep still. And no, it's only going to check for electronic devices." He nervously pulled his Altean phone out of his pocket. "Like this?"
"Give that to me!" she huffed as she snatched it. "Nooo, my phone! What are you going to do with it?" He struggled to grab it before giving up and staring sadly at the phone. "Nothing. I'm simply going to leave it in a safe place. We can pick it up on the way back. Now hold still!"
Grumbling, he submitted to the body scan. The green light passed over him twice before emitting a beeping noise. "Clean," Pidge said, checking her wrist. "Now my turn." She proceeded to remove an inordinate number of electronic devices from her person. From around her wrist, her ankle, her neck, under her shoes . . . he caught his breath as she removed her brother's glasses. "You're joking. You modified Matt's glasses? Isn't that taking it too far?"
She glanced up at him, her eyes looking larger and more vulnerable without a shield of glass between them. For some reason, Lance was finding it hard to breathe in here. When did it start feeling like a sauna? Was something wrong with the oxygen levels? They should get that checked out. He snuck a peek at Pidge again, feeling the heat rise in his cheek once again. It was no use. Her eyes resembled molten honey, full of glints of sunlight. They drew him in, and without the safety of a barrier protecting him from their light, he was in serious trouble. Okay Lance, calm down. It's just Pidge. Act like you guys normally do.
Oblivious to Lance's internal freak out, Pidge was considering his question. She stared down at Matt's glasses. Honestly, she hadn't thought too much about adding enhanced scanning capabilities. And the mass spectrometer, and the climbing assist app, and a few other potentially useful tools. The Holt siblings had both enjoyed slipping modifications into everyday items, watching the shock on unsuspecting guests' faces as a laser coming from a breadbox perfectly sliced new loaves, or a landline phone sprouted articulated joints and started crawling after them, ringing insistently. Adding to Matt's glasses… well, it felt natural. He would have approved.
Lost in thought, she excavated a nest for the glasses to sit in on top of the mound of electronics. Raising her gaze, she locked eyes with Lance as a wall panel softly shticked sideways, revealing darkness behind. "Let's talk."