She's called away shortly thereafter. Lance had received a strange, telling look before she'd turned to sprint towards the house.
He's never told anyone before.
"Witchery?" Pidge's nose had scrunched up. Her — and wasn't that something that would need a few days to think about? The guy he'd been hanging out with for months was actually a girl — expression was something akin to disgusted. Confused, definitely. She didn't — couldn't — understand. "What's so great about witchery? There's a reason I was taking the shapeshifting classes, Lance."
"I know," he responded, flushing with a familiar sense of shame. He kicked at the ground with one foot, rubbing at the back of his neck with one hand and stuffing the other into a pants pocket to hide the shaking. "And you're good at it, Pidge. A natural or something."
It was true. Despite the way of magic, Pidge was proficient in the war-based skills and tactics taught to the men of the family. She'd reported catching sight of glowing eyes in the trees in her dreams. And here he was, a boy, with no gift in shapeshifting whatsoever.
She sniffed. "I'm not terrible. I really did see a spirit following me once, you know." Here she paused, a thought visibly coming to her. "Hang on, is this because of what the other guys say?"
"No," Lance snapped, curling his free hand into a fist and shoving into his other pocket. "But Iverson and them are dicks. And I believe you, you know. You really are good at it. You can keep up."
Here she softened. "Lance, I — thanks. But I'm ahead of the game, you know? A lot of us haven't even seen a hint of any animal spirits, in their dreams or anywhere." She frowned. "And Iverson has a first name, yknow."
"But he's a dick," Lance reiterated. "And he's not wrong. I've never had a single dream about shapeshifting or anything, and I'm not good at the games we're supposed to play. Can't even focus long enough to try. It... it doesn't feel right."
"What do you mean?"
He shrugged. "It doesn't really feel like anything. I don't think I can shift at all. Or that I'll ever be able to."
Pidge cocked her head. "But witches' magic does feel right?"
"Kind of! It's just more interesting, you know? It feels useful."
"Demon hunting is useful," Pidge pointed out reasonably.
Lance looked away. "Obviously. But you don't see any of us doing any hunting at all, even the ones who can shift. Like Keith." He glowered, the usual unpleasant blend of irritation and jealousy rising up in his throat.
She groaned. "Lance."
"Shut up, I know."
There was a distant call on the wind. A familiar one. Both Lance and Pidge looked toward the house at the bottom of the hill, where the trees thinned into a clearing.
"They're calling for me," she observed. "What did they expect me to do: run away?"
"Maybe," Lance replied. "You were pretty upset. And Allura's gonna rip you a new one."
"Well, if you're not just being a dick about this whole thing, and you're really gonna tell me what Shiro's teaching you..." she trailed off, biting her lip. Another call floated up to them on the wind. It sounded like birdsong. "There's no way out of this for me, is there?"
She sounded miserable. Lance felt bad for her, and also bitterly jealous. "Don't think so."
"Yeah." She heaved a deep sigh, staring down at the house below. "I'll tell you what the witches are teaching me. But you better be serious about doing the same for me. That means no more slacking off!"
"I don't slack off," Lance protested, but he was grinning. "Thanks, Pidge."
"I'm serious," she carried on, as though he hadn't said anything, but she looked as though she was smothering a smile in return. She jabbed a finger at him. "You only ever show up for half the lessons!"
"Hey, maybe I have better things to do than wasting my time trying to do something that I can't actually do!"
Here she faltered. "Well," Pidge tried, "now you don't. If you want me to spill Allura's girly witch secrets, you have to have something useful to trade."
"Yeah, alright," he grouched, but it was mostly for show. He thought to himself that he could handle the boys' training if it meant he got to learn something he really wanted to after.
A third call between the trees, louder this time. After this, they would start sending people out to look for her.
"I'll meet you later," Pidge said. "Try to learn something useful in that time. And if I come back wearing girly aprons and bangles, shoot me."
Lance privately thinks bangles are kind of cute.
Boys' classes are over for the day, so he sits on his favorite log in the middle of the forest, where he and Pidge had been laughing together before this whole incident went down, and stares up at the darkening sky. Soon it'll be dark, and he'll be expected to go down to get dinner and roughhouse with the other boys and pretend everything is normal. That he doesn't hate failing at shapeshifting and trying over and over again to achieve something that... doesn't feel like it's going to happen. He'll paste a smile onto his face and joke around and tussle, all the while knowing that the girls will retreat to the library and he'll be stuck going outside to play tag in the dark or something. Something mindless. Animal.
"You're still out here."
Lance startled and looks over his shoulder. Shiro is standing there, arms crossed. The fading light glances on his face; the resulting eyeshine strikes a mix of both alarm and curiosity in Lance, until Shiro blinks and the effect vanishes. The older man smiles.
"H-hey, Shiro," Lance says, turning back towards the sunset. Night is creeping across the sky, swallowing up the pinks and purples and leaving only a deepening blue behind, dotted with stars. Shiro approaches the log quietly.
"Mind if I sit?" Lance shakes his head. Shiro sighs as he takes his seat on the remaining space. "We weren't just calling for Katie, you know."
"Pidge."
"Sorry?"
"It's Pidge." Lance looks over in time to catch the surprise on his teacher's face. "Just because she's actually a girl doesn't mean she doesn't want to be called Pidge, still. I talked to her. She didn't mind not being called Katie."
There's a moment of contemplative silence. Lance looks back to the sky. "You're right," Shiro says finally. "I'll apologize to her tonight and ask what she wants to be called. Thank you, Lance."
"No problem," Lance mutters.
"What are you still doing out here?" Shiro asks finally. Lance shrugs one shoulder.
"Why does Pidge have to leave the boy's classes?"
"Because she's not a boy," is the blank response. "Girls don't have an aptitude for shapeshifting, so they learn witchery."
"But she does have an aptitude for it!" Lance bursts out. He turns to face his teacher full body, straddling the log so he can properly gesticulate with his hands. "She's great at it! Having dreams and everything, and she was followed at the last Finding. She knows how to track, and how to take down people bigger than her, and —"
"Lance," Shiro interrupts, albeit gently. "Pidge is a girl. She will learn witch magic from Allura, and her talent will bloom there. I'm not saying that she's not a good tracker or fighter, because you're right. She is. But what you need to understand is that there's a reason we teach boys and girls different things, and it's not just because it's the way we've always done things."
"Why then?" Lance demands. "Why can't we learn from each other? Why can't we share magic?"
Shiro looks him in the eyes and stares, hard. Lance shuts up out of reflex, nervous. Scared he's overdone it, that he'll be found out and get in trouble, too. Then the man deflates, closes his eyes and rubs the bridge of his nose.
"We were only going to tell K— Pidge," he corrected himself. "But it seems like you need to hear it, too. It's a little scary, so I don't want you spreading it around, okay?"
"Shiro, I'm seventeen," Lance points out. "I've seen scary movies."
Shiro snorts. "Yeah, well. Have you ever heard the name Zarkon?"
"Uh, no," Lance answers with a short laugh. "Sounds like the villain of a cheesy tv show."
"You're right." Shiro laughs with him, but only for a moment. "Maybe that should've been a clue. Twenty years ago, Zarkon was a member of our family, but he did something unforgivable..."