Are you done ranting?

(Pidge)

Pidge didn't appreciate being pulled out of her thoughts when her thoughts revolved around the search (and possible rescue) of Matt and her father, but Lance had made it impossible to be ignored. He had laid himself out on the table she was using, right on top of her papers, and went into a rapidfire monologue that completely went over her head.

"What the hell, Lance," she'd snapped, just about ready to fend him off with her garrison-issued tablet. Lucky for him, Hunk decided to show up and had such a baleful expression on that Pidge begrudgingly backed off.

"Sorry, he's... acting out," Hunk explained. When he sat down at the table, he had the presence of mind to gently pry his friend off of Pidge's things and distract him with a candy bar.

"I can see that," Pidge said. It took some effort not to snap at him. Her papers were wrinkled but that wasn't Hunk's fault. "Do I even want to know?"

Hunk sighed a long-suffering sigh. "He got chewed out by one of the instructors again."

"Which one?"

"Languages."

Lance grumbled around his candy bar. "Hate that class. The only language I need to know is the language of aerodynamics."

"It's still a require class though, Lance," Hunk pointed out. "Some effort wouldn't be the worst thing in the world? It'd get the instructor off your back for sure."

"She called me an idiot in front of the entire class, Hunk. What kind of a teacher does that?"

"Military instructors," Pidge interjected, grimly thinking back to when 'Katie Holt' had been banned, "are soldiers first, teachers second, and your friend last." She frowned at Lance and adjusted her personal assessment of him. She knew he was petty, but she didn't think he was spoiled too. "You won't survive out here if you don't know how to compromise, y'know. You're a good pilot but they kind of expect people to be well-rounded around here. If you can't keep up, they're gonna cut you out - is that what you want?"

She half-expected Lance to get fired up again, but instead he frowned back at her and transferred that stare to a point on the ceiling. It was easy to see from the get-go that he was a heart-on-his-sleeve sort of guy - middle child of a group of six children, according to his file, which might be taken as a tongue-in-cheek explanation for his loud antics.

If Pidge was completely honest, she wasn't too happy to be stuck with the class clown. Her plan had been to coast through her classes just long enough to get the information she needed on the Kerberos mission. She hadn't decided what to do yet after she got her hands on that intel... Wash out? Graduate? But either way, she did not want to draw any more attention to herself than necessary. Unfortunately, she was stuck on a team with a guy who provoked attention as naturally and easily as breathing.

He was a very... animated person - even now, when he was being quiet for once. Pidge could practically see the gears turning in his head as he considered the ceiling.

Of course, this was Lance so silence never lasted very long and he was the one to break it.

"You think I'm a good pilot...?"

She blinked - of all the things she said, he chose to focus on that?

"Well... Sure?" she ventured, unsure of how to read his growing smile. "You're not half-bad or anything."

"For an idiot?"

Her mood went from thoughtful to unimpressed. "I never said that. Besides, weren't you, like, second in your class back at flight school or something?"

"The other guy washed out so technically that makes me first," Lance said smugly.

"Whatever, honor student. Hunk's got it right here. Getting into the Garrison doesn't give you license to slack off."

"Wasn't planning to. I just really hate dealing with crappy instructors - don't even try to defend that witch, dude," he said abruptly, with a stern glance at Hunk, whose mouth was half open at the start of a sentence. "I don't care if she's got a million problems piled on her shoulders, she's got no right to take them out on me."

"Wasn't going to?" Hunk said carefully. "I just wanted to point out that you maybe should have backed off today. On account of it being half your fault." He cleared his throat. "You should have been paying more attention to the lecture instead of oggling the girl in front of you."

"I was not - !"

Pidge sighed as Lance's end of the conversation wrapped up in a series of indignant noises and hand gestures. She wasn't sure how Hunk bore with it, but the larger trainee was a mass of stolid calm, bearing through the ridiculousness until Lance gathered himself up and stormed away in much the same manner that he had arrived in - mixing grumbles and curses under his breath in a way that Pidge found difficult to follow.

"It's kind of weird that he's failing Languages when he's practically fluent in, like, three," Hunk mused.

"Does that include aerodynamics," Pidge asked, which brought a grin to the other trainee's face.

"No sorry, make that four." His gaze swept the table, taking in the mess of books and papers, and the grin on his face turned apologetic. "Sorry you had to deal with that, by the way. Lance is kiiiind of a drama queen."

"Understatement." She poked at the candy bar that Lance had abandoned on one of her papers, grimacing at the smudge of oil it left underneath. "Don't worry about it. I've... Uh, wish I could say I've dealt with worse, but I haven't, actually."

That brought out a chuckle. "You'll get used to it. Lance is a decent guy if you give him a chance."

"Sounds like you've got a lot of practice being his wingman."

"Oh you don't know the half of it." Hunk lifted himself to his feet and pushed the candy bar towards her. "You can have that if you want. Made it myself and I don't like seeing food go to waste. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to check on Lance to make sure he isn't causing any more trouble."

"Sure. See you in class."

She picked up the candy bar as she watched Hunk's hulking figure disappear into the nearest intersection. A taste of it left a brief impression of cinnamon and granola on her tongue, with a hint of something nutty.

Hm, good stuff. Almost worth the interruption.