Keith had to rely heavily on Pidge's navigation as they went through the maintenance shaft.
Pidge needing to depend on him when it came to her getting over or around obstacles in the shaft. Pidge so small and light it was easy to lift her or help to carry her over something.
A Bigger role for him came into play when they got to the holding area, only two guards stationed near the holding cell. Keith, taking out one with a quick sneak attack while Pidge hid and used her electrified weapon to shock and take out the other.
"Alright tie them up while I get into this door," Pidge said going to the control panel and quickly typing into it, using the code she found on the computer before to get in. Keith using the guards' own whip-like weapons to bind them.
The door slides open to reveal a very beat up Galra, strapped to a board bloody and bruised. Pidge felt her stomach twist into a knot she would never get used to sights like this or she at least hope she would never.
She let Keith go in first, giving her stomach and mind a moment to calm, while Keith made sure the coast of clear of any other guards or personal they didn't know about. Luckily for them, it was only the prisoned blade inside.
Pidge switched her focus back to the digital pad near the door, locking said door, into open mode and checking the system to hide their tracks and to prevent any possible traps on the digital side of things.
"Yo-you're a blade" the prisoner chocked out seeing Keith's blade, Keith spotting the agents blade on a table not too far away with some… other instruments Keith rather not know the purpose for.
"Yes I'm Keith, we're here to get you out" Keith replied using his Blade full form to cut through the metal binding, carefully helping him to sit up. The small action making some of his barely sealed wounds re-open and others already open, to bleed more.
"I'm Mance" he grunted, using one beaten arm to hold the other arm that was even more scared and bruised.
Keith handing Mance his Blade, the fellow agent taking the dagger. Testing it by turning the dagger to its full sword form before changing it back. It was a way to make sure the blade was his and to prove to Keith he truly was a fellow agent. Keith and Mance share a small nod before Mance carefully slide his blade into a hidden sheath on his left forearm.
"Hold still, we'll need to bandage you up," Pidge said entering the room.
"It-s alright I can still move and walk" the agent assured, shaking as he stood up.
"That's great... but we don't need you bleeding out and creating a trail while were escaping" Pidge replied flatly, unimpressed with the heroics of pretending he was alright.
Mance hesitant, though he was taller than both her and Keith, the agent seems to deflate under her unwavering gaze, and reluctantly nodded accepting her reasoning, slowly sitting back down with Keith's help.
"Keith, can I borrow your blade?" Pidge asked outstretching her hand towards him; his blade would be easier to cut with than with the small one at the end of her weapon. Pidge using her other hand to grab the bottom layer of her dress stretching it out while trying not to pull it out of the tie in the back.
Keith turned his blade back into its dagger form than handing it to her. Keith caught the fellow Blade's Agent gazing at them wide-eyed, but the agent quickly looked away when Keith turned to look at him, appearing to be slightly…. Embarrassed?
Pidge quickly cutting the undermost layer of her dress into long strips of cloth before handing it to Keith. Cutting as many as she could as he started bandaging Mance's major injuries.
Pidge noticed the Agent staring at her hand as she handed the dagger back to Keith; Pidge assuming Mance was wondering if she was part Galra as well. Keith taking the blade without even looking at her, sliding it back into his belt as if it was second nature.
"I'm almost done, go make sure our route is clear," Keith said glancing over at Pidge, she simply nodding before going back out the room and finding the nearest open system to hack.
"You two work well together," Mance told him.
"Thanks" Keith replied, more focused on bandaging Mance's wounds than his words.
"Keith, everything's ready," Pidge said popping her head into the room a few minutes later.
"Come on let's go," Keith told the fellow agent, helping him stand, Pidge leading them to a different set of maintenance shafts. Keith taking one more look around to make sure that the cost was clear, and no trail was made, before slipping in after them.
They made their way to the maintenance grate that was the closest to their parked ship. Pidge explaining the plan to Mance and when he needed to rush to their ship, the pilot was also a blade's member and should be able to help him get in and hid, as she's already messed with the camera's in the area and left a blind spot from the shaft to the ship. The best moment to do this would be while Keith and her distracted the guards.
They made sure Mance understood the plan and left with the means to open the doors, before leaving him at the spot and made their way to the exit they needed one that would open along the long hallway they originally entered the gala from.
Once they were a fair distance away "so… mind telling me how we're going to distract the guards?" Keith questioned.
"Easy the same way we came in, it's not unusual for a famously moody duchess like Rukul to leave a gathering early," Pidge replied with a dramatic wave as if to fan herself. "As we go through the security again, I'll start ranting and making a fuss and should get everyone's attention on me, hopefully, long enough for Mance to sneak in"
"So you're channelling your inner Lance now?" Keith questioned teasingly.
Pidge let out a single laugh "Maybe a little of him for the dramatic flair, but I wouldn't count you out for your public outburst, they're pretty attention-grabbing as well," She replied, and not even a beat later she could practically feel the argumentative reply building up in Keith.
She acted quickly and put a hand against his chest pausing his argument with the touch and stopping both of their steps for the time being. "I'm pretty bad about them as well, I'm just saying you're not immune to them" she clarified.
His shoulders relaxed and his chest seemed to deflate a little, and nodded; he understood she didn't mean it as an insult just a fact, which… he really couldn't argue.
Pidge smiled, pulling her hand away and continuing their way down the passageway again.
Keith wondering when she got so good at reading him, she could both rile him up, her words hitting a mental bullseye one moment than using her words and touch to calm him in the next.
She had a gift for deducing peoples actions and traits, figuring out the core reasons behind them. He wouldn't say she was good with people; much like him, neither had any natural instinct when it came to human...humanoid interactions, but she had a way to make up for it.
She had the ability to break down people... like they were an equation. Depending on how much time she was around an individual and if enough evidence had been presented, she could figure out the source to a lot of peoples motivations, emotions, and reactions. Abmitivily Keith was a little envious she could do that.
She probably figured out a way to calm him just by observing how Shiro interacted with him, and Shiro's methods for calming him down. Then mimicked what he did while also making the method her own. The height difference alone forced her to touch his chest or arms instead of his shoulders. Pidge was always straightforward and factual with him which didn't have the same emotional impact as Shiro's words often did...
But they made sense; there was a logic behind them, and Pidge was so straightforward and honest, there were no guessing games when it came to her thoughts or feelings, and as overwhelming as her raw emotions could be at times, it was relieving not to having to play guessing games…
"Keith, how do your gloves look?" Pidge asked stopping again as she untied the twisted mess of her dress and tried to make it look as presentable as possible, well at least the topmost layer.
"A little bloody" Keith admitted taking a look at his gloved hands, Pidge pulling off her own gloves and holding them in her mouth, taking a few steps towards him, using the cloth that tied the dress up to clean his hand.
Keith had a few questions buzzing in his head that he wanted to ask her, ones that had been in his mind for too long... and a few more rapidly crawling their way to the surface thanks to this mission. It would be best to ask her, Pidge would answer them honestly in private, no social anxieties or individuals trustworthiness to worry about. He just hoped to get the chance before the blades whisked him away to another mission, or before his own nerves stopped him from asking once again.
"Aldight dha looks ood" Pidge muttered around the gloves in her mouth before stuffing the bloody cloth into a hiding spot along the walls, she would like to leave no evidence but it was riskier to take it with them than to leave it.
Pidge pulling out a little spray bottle from another hidden part along with her dress belt. Spraying her hands with it before rubbing her hands together to make sure the stuff absorbed into her skin then putting her long gloves back on, making sure the fabric smoothed over her skin.
Keith realized he was watching her fingers graze over the fabric on her arm and quickly glanced away, not knowing why the action seemed so… interesting?
"What's the spray for?" he questioned.
"It's to make me smell more like Rukul, some Galra have pretty strong noses and it was a risk for my scent to smell too differently from Rukul" She Explained, glance over at him than down to his gloved hands.
"I need your hands again," Pidge stated not asked, grabbing one hand of his, instead of waiting for him to give her one, and he pulled his hand out of hers. Pidge paused that stabbing feeling in her chest returning, this was another show that Keith didn't trust her like he used to.
"What are you doing?" Keith questioned.
"Galra with sensitive noses will be able to smell the blood on your hands, it would be better for your hand to smell like Rukul than to smell like blood" Pidge explained looking up at him, letting out a long sigh, trying to breathe through her frustration and hurt…
Pidge's gaze made him feel like he got a punch in the gut, the look was all too similar to how she would look at him when he was the leader.
He wordlessly handed her his hands, not trusting his voice to sound… right in this moment.
She took his hands in her smaller ones and sprayed them, before hiding the vile back into her belt and rolled up her weapon and hide it back under her dress, taking extra care to make sure it was strapped on right.
Keith handing her his dagger before she could ask for it. Pidge taking it with only a slight nod as her hands wrapped around the handle hid it under her dress.
Keith and Pidge never needed to talk to understand each other or to keep each other company but this silent felt muggy and heavy, like a wall between them instead of the open comfort it once was, and they both could feel it.
Keith bending down to help press out some of the wrinkles along the dress's fabric. Pidge letting him deal with that as she moved the vail back over eyes.
"Stay still and look at me" Pidge requested, Keith looking up at her more out of confusion than compliance, she couldn't see his face but must have been able to tell by his body language as she added "I need to use your visor as a mirror so I can fix my hair."
Pidge starting to fix the loose hairs of the wing and smooth or tuck them back into place. Her eyes looking right at his but not… she couldn't see his eyes only her reflection but being this close he could see her's even past the vile.
There was a focus to them but also twitches of suppressed emotions that he couldn't read.
"Pidge…" He started but stopped him self-surprised with how weak and emotional his voice sounded.
"Don't" she replied her voice and tone like a quick gab made to stop him if he hadn't stopped himself. Pidge breathing through her noise than out through her mouth "not now… later" she suggested sound softer almost pleading.
He nodded, she was right this wasn't the time for questions. Freezing as she hugged him around that neck as if to seal the promise of talking later. His hands gently resting on her lower back over her dress in return.
Pidge pulled away first, he didn't know why but his hands felt heavier as he pulled them away from her.
"Now I need you to act like my knight again, and not be my Lance, I don't need you to flirt with the female guards," Pidge said with a teasing smile.
"Couldn't be that much like Lance even if I tried" He replied with a playful huff as he stood up, the heaviness between them easing but still lingering around them.
"Let's go, my Knight," she said turning to face her back towards him again.
"Of course my Duchess" he replied.