Author's Note: This chapter centers on Pidge, and takes place sometime shortly before S1E6.
"Well, what do you know? This actually isn't terrible," Hunk mutters, cocking his head at the bowl of "peanut butter" that he's just finished making. He slides his index finger out of his mouth, then sets the bowl on a tray, where a spork and the electrical heating pad he built earlier are resting, and exits the kitchen.
It doesn't take Hunk more than a couple of doboshes to reach Pidge's bedroom, but when he gets there, he hesitates to knock. What if she tells me to get lost? he frets — and his concern is valid, considering Pidge's scrappy personality and sharp tongue, and the fact that she wasn't in a good mood earlier. She'd scarfed down her breakfast in a matter of doboshes, and then she bolted from the training deck in the middle of an exercise, claiming she really needed to pee — and yeah, that could have been true, but given that she's been irritable as all hell lately and that, if what Hunk read in her diary the night they rescued Shiro is true, she gets her period, Hunk doubts it.
… and if Pidge is keeping her being female a secret, there's a good chance she's going to yell at Hunk if he so much as hints that he knows. He could probably calculate the probability of her telling him to fuck off if he thought about it for more than a few ticks, in fact.
… but Hunk wants to help. He can stand getting yelled at. Pidge has already yelled at him for "rooting around" in her head once. What's one more time?
He raises one fist to knock on her door. "Pidge?" he calls. "Can I, uh, come in?"
"I thought I told everyone to leave me alone," Pidge mutters miserably from inside her room.
I should respect her boundaries, Hunk thinks, chewing on his bottom lip. I should leave her alone.
… but I can help.
… but Pidge doesn't want help, he argues with himself.
"I made peanut butter," he says… instead of something more relevant, something like "I know you're on your period and I made you a heating pad to help with the cramps I'm assuming you have based on the fact that you've been clutching your stomach for the past two days."
The door to Pidge's room opens, and before Hunk can even blink, she's standing in front of him, gazing up at him with an adorably skeptical look that makes him both doubt himself and want to force-feed her until she never doubts his culinary skills again.
… but instead of doing that, he just gestures to the tray in his hands, which, due to the height difference between himself and Pidge, is about even with Pidge's face.
"It's not quite peanut butter because there are no peanuts in space," Hunk starts, deciding that he ought to give her a heads-up, "but I found some kind of nuts in the kitchen, as well as salt and xylitol, the sugar alcohol used as a sweetener in peanut butter and a bunch of other foods. I couldn't find a stabilizer, though, so the oil keeps separating from the paste. You're gonna have to stir it all back together, but—."
"Hunk."
Hunk blushes as the realization that he was rambling hits him. "Yeah?"
"Quit standing in the doorway and come inside already," Pidge grumbles, kicking the armor she'd changed out of at some point out of her way as she walks over to her bed and plops down unceremoniously.
Hunk follows Pidge inside, then sets the tray down on her bed and takes a step back.
"You can sit down if you want."
Hunk steps over what looks like Pidge's cuirass, then lowers himself onto her bed. He winces slightly as the mattress dips under his weight.
"What's this?" Pidge asks as she picks up the heating pad and turns it over in her hands.
"It's a heating pad," Hunk answers. "I couldn't find one in storage, so I built one — and I attached an adjustable belt-like thingy to it, so you wouldn't need to hold it to your body all day. The belt is detachable, though, so if you don't like that feature, you just—." He reaches over the tray and presses on the hinges on the sides of the rectangular pad, and the belt falls onto Pidge's lap. "—apply pressure to the connection points and… voilà!"
"You… made this?" Pidge marvels. She shoots Hunk the same look she did when he introduced to everyone the Geiger counter he had built out of things he had found inside Keith's shack in the desert: a look of curiosity mixed with respect.
It's a look that brings a smile to Hunk's face, given the fact that it's difficult to pique Pidge's interest, and even harder to earn her respect. She's a genius, and she spouts off computer and scientific jargon like Hunk's never heard anyone do before. It had startled him at first, since for the majority of Hunk's life he'd tended to be the smartest person in the room and, as a result, translate his thoughts into more… accessible language so that laymen could understand him.
He's never met another teenager who can so easily understand his technobabble (as Lance calls it), and so meeting Pidge felt like both a challenge and coming home.
… which is why Hunk wants to help her.
"It's just an electrical heating pad. It wasn't hard to build," he answers. "I just encased the insulated electrical resistance wire in an envelope — apparently the majority of Altean fabric is waterproof! — and then wrapped it up in some flannel-like fabric that, if I read the Altean tags correctly, is capable of withstanding high temperatures. Although," he adds hesitantly, "I'd avoid putting it on the highest setting if I were you. I'm still not sure how Altean degrees compare to ours."
The Green Paladin turns the device around in her hands once more, then drops it onto her lap and shoots Hunk a suspicious look. "What do you know, and how do you know what you know?" she demands.
Hunk flinches at Pidge's tone, but doesn't react otherwise; he'd been expecting an interrogation, after all. "I know you get your period. You were complaining about it at one point in your diary, and—."
"I still can't believe you read my diary," Pidge grumbles.
"Sorry," Hunk responds, even though he isn't. He's never been a fan of secrets, and he's always been a fan of knowledge — especially hidden knowledge because knowledge shouldn't be hidden. It should be accessible to everyone all the time.
… or so his pappy thought.
"It's fine," Pidge decides, after glaring at Hunk for a couple more ticks. "I forgive you." She glances down at the heating pad in her lap, then picks it up. "I didn't appreciate the invasion of privacy," she starts, staring down at the pad with furrowed brows as she pokes at its different features and settings, "but I can… I can appreciate your curiosity, and the lengths you'll go to get information." She lifts her gaze to meet Hunk's, then continues. "You're smart, Hunk. You're a lot more intelligent than you let on."
Hunk smiles, then bites his lip as he remembers that there's something more important to talk about than whether or not Pidge thinks he's smart. "I won't tell anyone that you're a girl," he promises. "I mean, I like to know things, but I know it's not my place to—."
"I'll probably tell everyone soon," she interrupts, a hint of passivity in her voice. "I mean, Shiro already knows; he figured out I'm Commander Holt's daughter when he, Keith, and I went to retrieve the Red Lion and I told him that my father and brother were the ones on the Kerberos mission with him. I think Allura's figured it out, too. She was practically interrogating me during the party we held after we defeated that robeast."
She glances down at the heating pad and the not-peanut butter, then blinks back up at Hunk. "Thank you for… all this," Pidge continues, gesturing to the items between them and scooping a bit of the "peanut" paste onto her finger. She pops her fingertip into her mouth, then grins. "Hey! This is great, Hunk!" she exclaims. She licks the rest of the not-peanut butter off of her finger, then smiles softly at Hunk. "Thank you."
"You're welcome, Pidge," Hunk replies, shooting her a soft smile of his own. "I'm glad you like it."
The two of them fall into a companionable silence, but Pidge breaks it after a dobosh. "How did you know what I needed?" she asks. "I don't remember you saying you have a sister."
"Well, I did take biology," Hunk laughs. "I also had a girlfriend, though, back at home." He glances down at Pidge's floor, littered with stuff already, and stifles a sigh as he recalls all the times his mom had told him that he had to clean his room if he wanted to invite his girlfriend over because she wouldn't stand for her thinking she had raised a slob. "Whenever it was her time of the month, I'd make her favorite food, poi — Samoan-style banana pudding, essentially — and spend the day watching movies with her. She said it helped."
When Hunk looks back at Pidge, he sees that her lips are pressed into a thin line and that her hands are balled into fists at her sides. She looks jealous — but Hunk has no idea what Pidge could be jealous of, so he brushes it off as her cramps acting up again and gestures to the heating pad. "Try it," he urges. "It should help."
She bites her lip, then obliges. She turns the device on and chooses a heating level, then presses it against her lower belly. She holds it there with one hand while she scoops another sporkful of the not-peanut butter into her mouth.
"How does it feel?" Hunk asks.
"Good," Pidge purrs, her brows unfurrowing as the heat radiates across her abdomen. "It feels really, really good."
"I'm glad," Hunk responds. He shoots Pidge a sincere smile, then, noting her disheveled hair and tired expression, pushes himself off the bed. "I'll leave you alone now, but let me know if you need any—."
"Can you stay?"
Hunk blinks a couple of times in surprise — he definitely hadn't been expecting that — then cocks his head at Pidge. She's staring at him like a deer caught in a car's headlights, as if she can't believe she's just asked him to stay, but the strength with which her lithe fingers are gripping Hunk's wrist reveal that she doesn't regret asking.
"Please?" Pidge adds, a desperate tinge to her voice that Hunk knows he can't attribute to her dropping the heating pad on her bed in her haste to grab hold of him.
Hunk nods his assent. Pidge smiles and releases Hunk's wrist to sit back down on the bed, and Hunk quickly follows suit. He grabs the heating pad she'd dropped and presses it against her belly; her cold hands brush his warm one as she takes the pad from him.
"Of course I'll stay," Hunk smiles.
… and it's not an answer, but a promise.