The next day Allura decided to put her plan into action, though she didn't know how to go about it. She walks through the castle thinking of ways to connect with the human paladins. Perhaps she could call them in for a training exercise, but how was she supposed to bond with them if they're all fighting gladiators. Maybe she could use the mind melding headsets, though those do tend to get bit too personal. She could always go with Lance's plan and have a 'sleepover', the Earth version of course.

Still In deep thought, Allura passes one of the lions' hangers, when she hears something from within, causing her to stop in her tracks.

"Son of a bit-" ZAP, "Ahhh!"

Allura peeks around the entryway to see none other than the Green Paladin, Pidge. They're muttering to themselves as they walk around the Green Lion with a long cord connected to their laptop. Their glasses askew and hair sticking up in different directions and singed at the ends.

This was it, now was Allura's chance to strike. Instead of bonding with the Paladins all together, she could as just easily bond with them one on one. Getting to know them on a personal level, without digging into their brains and memories. And she would start with Pidge, she already had started to bond with them before Sendak attack the castle on Arus. Hopefully this will go better than then.

Allura silently struts into the hanger, grinning from pointed ear to pointed ear at her plan. She comes up behind the tech distracted human, and cocks her head in confusion at computer screen in front of them.

She leans down to take a closer look, "What are you doing?"

Pidge jumps up startled nearing dropping their computer at the sudden appearance of the princess, "Ahh!" they immediately shut the laptop close. "Princess!"

Allura stand up straight, "Oh, I'm sorry Pidge I didn't mean to frighten you." She hadn't been here for a minute and her plan was already failing. "I was just curious to what you were doing."

Pidge takes a breath, "It's fine," they says, "I'm looking for a usb port"

Allura cocks her head again, "Are you trying to connect your device to our lion?"

The small paladin lets out a chuckle, "Yeah, silly of me to think that thousands year old lion mech would be compatible with my PC." They turn back to face The Green Lion, "Sorry, girl," they address the metal feline, who responds with a low apologetic hum. "Maybe if I had an apple…" They mumble to themselves reopening their laptop.

"An apple?" Allura asked, "isn't that an Earth fruit?"

"I mean yeah, but it's also a type of commuter." Pidge said putting down their computer.

"I wasn't aware that Earth fruit could double as technology" Allura said astonished.

Pidge sat back down at their computer, "Well no, it's just a name."

"Oh, I see."

To was silent for a moment between the Princess and The Green Paladin, Allura stood over Pidge as they continued typing out code on their computer. Allura failed to sustain a regal stance and began to teeter on either foot as her eyes wondered around the hanger. She was struggling to come up with a conversation topic, the two of them didn't share any hobbies or character traits.

Pidge, noticing Allura zoning out behind them, sighed, "Not to sound rude or anything" piped up not looking up from their screen, "but what are you doing here?"

"Ah, yes! I wanted to have some girl bonding time with you!" Allura says, that would be a good cover for some bonding. Besides she wanted this before when the space mice told her Pidge's secret, though now she has realized that was an invasion of privacy.

Pidge grits their teeth and sucks air in "Oh well, that's going to be hard."

Allura is taken aback, "Why's that?"

"I'm not a girl."

Allura pauses, "Didn't you confess you were a girl?"

"I mean yeah, sort of…"

"So you really are a boy?"

"Well-uh-no."

"Oh I see," she says "Humans are capable of having more than one gender. I have meet multiple species like this, some that can have up to different five hundred genders." Allura states proudly at her knowledge of different alien races.

"Cool, but that's not me either."

"I don't understand, do you not have a Gender?"

"Bingo!" Pidge puts a finger to their noise, "I already came out to the guys, guess I forgot to tell you and Coran."

Allura would have felt hurt that she didn't receive such intimate info with the others, if she weren't so curious about Humans and their gender expression. "Interesting, I didn't know Earthlings could be genderless."

Pidge pushes up their glasses, "Yeah well here I am."

"So what are you called?"

"What?"

"Is there a name for you and other genderless beings."

"Well, on Earth there are a few names for it, but I use Nonbinary and use they/them pronouns."

"Plural terms used as singular, fascinating. Are there many like you back on Earth."

"Sure, but we're but not that well known." Pidge coughed "I only figured it out a while ago."

"On Altea, there were only two recognized genders, I'm sorry I assumed you were a girl." Allura was going to have a talk with her mice about assuming gender when she was done here.

"That's okay, it happens a lot."

Allura smiled, it was working, slowly but surely. She was getting to know one of the paladins, she couldn't stop know. "I'd love to hear more about Earth and your customs."

Pidge blinks widely, "Well I'd show you but there's shitty wifi in space."

"Weefee?"

Pidge snorts at her pronunciation, "Yeah it helps with my computer. That's why I've been trying to find another source to use." They pull up their laptop and open an app, "You wouldn't happen to know of any Best Buys in space?"

"Is 'Best Buy' an Earth store?"

"Yeah that's what I thought." They sigh as they close out of the app.

"What do you do on your computer?"

"Everything." They start typing, "But mostly memeing."

"What's memeing? Is that another Earth store?" Allura takes a moment to reflect, "Are 'memes' the same as when we 'roasted' Lance?"

"Close," Pidge's face lit up, "Oh boy, I need to educate you on memes!" After a few clicks on the keyboard, they pulled up a file on their desktop labeled 'Supreme Meme.'

Matched Pidge's enthusiasm "Was 'memes' all that you did on your computer?"

"Not necessarily" They scan through dozen of pictures of humans and cartoon characters with word text, "Before we left earth I also scanned radio waves at night to try and find my-" Pidge stopped themselves. "My dad and brother…"

"Oh."

Pidge had mentioned their family before, Allura knew how desperate Pidge is when it came to finding their family. They even came close to leaving the team to find them, without an inkling to their location. Their brother and father were out there somewhere in space under the Garla's boot, and Pidge wanted them back. Allura could relate…

The short human looks down at the keyboard, "And I was thinking that if I got my computer up and running again that I could start scanning again." Pidge says in such a low tone of voice, Allura almost couldn't hear them.

"I'm sorry we haven't find them."

"It's okay." Pidge sighs, "It's a big universe."

Allura crouches down to their level, "What are they like?"

"What?" Pidge snaps out of it, wiping a tear from their eye.

"Your Father and brother?" Allura puts a hand on Pidge's shoulder, imitating the affection she'd seen Shiro give them hundreds of times.

"They are both extremely smart, the two smartest people I know," Pidge smirks.

It was good to see Pidge happy again, "Sounds like it runs in the family."

"Yeah that's why they were picked for the Kerberos with Shiro."

"Shiro?"

"Shiro went on the mission with my dad and brother. Which only makes sense because he's the best Pilot the Earth had to offer." Pidge beams with their words.

"Is that so?" This was going splendid, now she was learning about the other Paladins as well.

"Sure, I heard it every day from Matt after training." Their smirked chances into a devilish smile at the thought, Allura sensed that there was more that Pidge wasn't telling her. But she decides to let it go, maybe she would ask Shiro later.

"Oh, wait," Pidge turns to their bag and digs around until they pull out a photograph, "Here," they hand it to Allura. "That's me and my brother, Matt."

Pidge didn't need to point him out, the resemblance was remarkable. Allura looks down at the photo then back up to Pidge, "You look so much alike."

Pidge shrugs, "We get that a lot."

"I love your outfit in this picture."

"Yeah, it's an okay dress. Nothing like yours though."

"Thank you. Your hair looks nice too."

"Thanks, maybe I'll grow it out." They say running a hand through their tangled mop. "My hair hasn't been this short since Matt accidently burned it off when I was five."

Allura's jaw drops, "Oh my, I don't have siblings but is that an Earth thing?"

"Nah, Matt just built a homemade blowtorch" They wave it off, "I was fine, mom was pissed though-" Pidge stopped themselves again they're facing turning pale.

"What's the matter?"

Their eyes begin to tear up, "I forgot about my mom…" Pidge practically choking up. "She's all alone back on Earth. God," Pidge pulls their hair back. "She must think we're all dead!"

Oh, no. Allura thinks, and it was going so well before. Quiznak, why were their so many pitfalls with humans? She could turn this around, she could make this better. All she need to do was comfort the Nonbinary human. She hesitantly wraps an arm around Pidge, causing them to fall into her plush white hair.

Pidge's quite sobs stop for only a moment before wrapping their arms completely around Allura, hair and all. This is better, Allura pulls Pidge into a tighter hug, and places a hand on top of their head. She noticed the slightly rougher texture of human hair, as her fingers slipped up and down Pidge's head. Allura would be lying if she said she wasn't comfortable with the situation, she never cared to take of children, crying or not. But this was different, this was Pidge, who wasn't a child as far as Allura knew, they are a Paladin of Voltron, strong and dependable. And yet they wept.

Allura kept stroking Pidge's, so tenderly it reminded her of how her father would comfort her hair when she had questions about her mother. A spark goes off in Allura's brain, "I never knew my mother," she says trying to relate to their pain, "She died when I was young, but my father would ways try so hard to be both parents." The memory of it brings tears to Allura's eyes, "And he was always making the silliest jokes to cheer me up."

Pidge shifts, "My dad makes dumb puns," They say muffled by Allura's hair, "it drives mom crazy."

Allura continued to hold and brush Pidge's head, as they exchanged embarrassing family stories. Mr. Holts obsession with the different types of Earth vegetation, especially peas. Or how Allura once as a child ignored her father for a Quintent, because she was mad at him for some childish reason. Allura had been wrong before when she thought she and Pidge had nothing in common, they had a love for their families and friends. It had nearly been a varga sense the two had started talking, and neither had broken away from their platonic hug.

The Princess could feel her arms going numb, and she wondered if Pidge's arm falling asleep wrapped around her. Just as if Pidge had read her mind, they pull away from Allura's embrace.

"Oh God, I can't believe I just started crying, how dumb." They say giving their arms a stretch followed by a pop.

"It's not dumb." Allura looks Pidge softly in the eyes, "if you ever want to talk I'm here for you. We don't have to call it girl bonding time, we could find a more suitable name."

Pidge wipes both eyes with their jacket sleeve, "Yeah," they sniffle out. They look up to Allura, eyes still red and just a bit puffy. "Thanks, Allura."

Allura softly smiles, "Of course,"

One down, four to go. Allura thinks, giving herself a mental pat on the back.

"And you know," She continued, "you can always use the castle's computer to amply your computer, without the use of weefee."

"Holy crap, really?" They look up to the Green Lion as if they were communicating together, "I was going to ask but I didn't want to be rude," they whisper to the large mechanical cat, perhaps arguing with what she had said.

Allura chuckles at the Lion and her Paladin, "Nonsense, you are a Paladin, the castle and all its amenities are yours."

Pidge smiles with a large toothy grin "Awesome! Thanks again Allura."

"It's no trouble," She says so sure of herself, "we are a team and we must help one another."

"I agree. Now-" They pulls up their laptop, still open to the odd pictures. "let me educate you on memes."

I'm trying really hard to keep the crew in character for all my fics, sorry if things get a litlle too OC-y. I had a fun time writing this chapter, hope all five of you like it.

Next up its everyone's favorite cinnamon roll, to good to pure for this world, Hunk.