Prompt from secretlystephaniebrown!
I just want to thank all of you so much for supporting this fic! It's really meant a lot
Voltron: Legendary Defender and related characters © Dreamworks
story © RenaRoo
A Simple Game
Chapter Four: The Next Round
Lance had one goal for the evening, and it involved avoiding another lecture from Shiro at all costs. It also happened to involve a combination of video games and having as little forward thought as humanly possible.
Which made it doubly difficult to not groan out in disappointment as loudly as possible when the door to the game room opened and he saw Pidge being on the other side.
Things that involved Pidge rarely involved no thought.
His fellow paladin blinked in equal surprise at his presence before looking back down to the device in her hands. By the time she looked back to Lance his body was in a full on slump.
"Oh, great," he muttered, dragging himself in.
"Oh, sorry, Lance. I was just on my way out," she promised, holding the device closer to her chest.
Perking up slightly, Lance slapped his hands together. "Oh! Great news then! I'll just help myself on in here," he said jovially, walking toward the GameOrb and its circle of mats toward the center of the room.
Having already begun the preparation for shutting off his brain for the evening, Lance almost didn't register what Pidge had been holding on her way out of the room. But by the time his feet were by the GameOrb mats, it came steamrolling over his thoughts.
"Hey!" Lance called out, whipping around to face Pidge.
Almost through the door herself, Pidge froze. Stiffly, she finally turned to face him and offered a reluctant smile. "Something up?"
"That! In your hands!" he said, pointing in accusation. "Is that Rover? I thought Rover was destroyed back when the castle was attacked. That was like… Huh. I have no idea how many days have passed without there being a day and night. But it's been forever, right?"
She seemed slightly off balanced at the accusations, holding tighter to the device. "So what if it is Rover?"
"Well," Lance replied thoughtfully, "I'm thinking if it is Rover that it's suspicious how you're sneaking around with it. What's the deal with that?"
Pidge stayed quiet, eyes dropping a bit toward Rover as her grip loosened. "Shiro and Allura aren't on board with getting Rover back online. Considering that Sendak was able to copy the signature and send in… Well, send in the bomb."
Lance's brows raced for his hairline at the reminder. Not that the miraculous Altean technology had left much physically from the explosion, but there wasdefinitely a phantom of something traveling up his back. That ghost of selflessness that was met with immediate refusal by the universe.
"Yeah, well, hard to argue with that logic from my end," Lance said, rubbing at his neck.
When he glanced back to his teammate, he couldn't make out her eyes as they hid behind her hair and glasses. But her grip on Rover didn't let up, tightening to the point of shaking.
Smirking, Lance put a hand to his chin. "But you don't have that old empty bot in your hands for nothing… Hm." He feigned a gasp and snapped his fingers together. "Why, Pidge! You wouldn't happen to be thinking of breaking some rules over that thing are you?"
"Bending," she admitted, looking up. There was some surprise on her face, maybe from his tone, maybe from just not expecting to get to explain herself. It was hard to tell. "I'm not really breaking any rules here. They brought up some valid – very valid – concerns about having Galra technology hanging around the castle when we don't have a way to stop Galra from taking advantage of it."
"Valid points we're ignoring?" Lance asked, stepping away from the GameOrb.
"No, not ignoring," Pidge said, rolling her eyes.
"For me can we pretend that we're ignoring them, though?" Lance begged. "I love the idea of you being a troublemaker!"
"You do remember that I was breaking the rules at the academy for monthsbefore you and Hunk ever thought to have your first food raid," Pidge argued, but she stepped more into the game room again. "And even being at the academy was breaking all sorts of rules."
"Oh, right," Lance said, blinking in amazement. He had never given their time in the academy any thought with his new perspective on things. "Whoa, Pidge! This almost makes you… cool?"
The green paladin gave a large roll of her eyes. "Wow, that's meaningful coming from you, Lance."
"I know," he smirked before leaning coolly agains the back of the couch. "So how many rules are we breaking with this thing tonight, troublemaker?"
Pidge grunted, holding out Rover's inactive form. "None!" she snapped at first. She then thought for a moment before dropping her shoulders. "Okay, noneexcept the part about not doing it. And the part about doing it behind Allura and Shiro's backs. Other than that it's none."
"So…" Lance hummed. "All of it?"
"All of it," Pidge mumbled.
"Ha!" Lance laughed, grabbing the device from Pidge's hands in spite of her immediate protests. "I love it. Okay, so what do we do?"
"You don't do anything," Pidge growled, jumping up in order to get the leverage she needed and landing with Rover in tow. "You came in here to play video games, right?"
Lance pouted. "Well, yeah, but–"
"Well, play them," Pidge ordered. "If you want to be around to see me get in trouble, I can fix Rover in here. It's what I was doing anyway."
Smirking, Lance held out his hand. "Deal, partner!"
She stared at his hand for a long moment before raising an eyebrow. "What am I getting out of this besides your gaming proving to be a distraction later on?"
Giving a slight shrug, Lance kept his hand out waiting. "Company?" he offered.
While she rolled her eyes, Pidge clasped onto his hand and took the firm shake. "Because company really helps get a job done," she said before moving toward the couch.
"Eh," Lance huffed, waving off her comment as he moved to the GameOrb. "You wouldn't have been putting it together in here if you weren't planning on wanting someone to run into during all this time, Pidge. You're a bit too smart for that."
As the GameOrb projected its screens and patiently awaited for Lance to scroll through each available option, Pidge grew quiet.
It was easy to ignore the silence in favor of thinking she was simply deep in thought over the task at hand, but Lance continued to get the distinct, prickly feeling at the back of his neck telling him that Pidge's attention was focused on the back of his head.
With a few quick, confirming glances, Lance hiked up his shoulders and finally selected the ship flying simulator for what might have been the hundredth time that week.
"What?" he pressed as Pidge didn't say anything.
"It's just…" Pidge trailed off, fingers tapping nervously on Rover. "You were hurt in that bomb's explosion."
"Tell me about it," Lance huffed, reaching forward to swipe at the screen. "I was feeling that for days. Heh. Good thing we've got this amazing space technology of Allura's, huh?"
"But you haven't asked me how I'm going to stop it from happening again," Pidge continued, almost paying Lance's commentary no mind. "How do you know I'm not making a huge mistake, opening us up to another Galra attack. One that could hurt you even worse?"
Lance hummed a bit, free hand tapping on his knee while the other swiped away at the GameOrb's controls.
"Well, I was doing a pretty good job of not thinking about it until right now," Lance said, tilting back until he could look at Pidge upside down. "I know thinking's your thing, Pidge, but you really should try not thinking every now and then, it makes things a whole lot simpler at the end of the day."
"I don't believe you don't think at the end of the day, Lance," Pidge remarked. "Not for a second."
"You mean not for a tick?" Lance chuckled to himself.
"Very funny," Pidge huffed from the couch, drawing her feet up from the floor. Rather than fix Rover, she continued to watch Lance play for a while longer.
When it became obvious that Pidge was not about to release the elephant from the room, Lance sighed dramatically and paused his game. "Okay," he said, spinning around from his spot on the mat to stare at Pidge directly. "Tell me what you're doing different with Rover this time around to keep everything safe and fun and wonderful."
Pidge's face lit up. "Well, I had so much success putting together Altean technology by reverse engineering, and I know how easy it is for me to hack the Galra tech that originally ran Rover, so I'm going to do the same. Only this time I'm going to use my reverse engineering to deconstruct the Galra tech that's been running Rover entirely and rebuild a new interface mostly relying on adopting Earth programming language and the Altean I've been able to learn. Two languages that will make it more unlikely for the Galra to be able to knowledgeably hack or recreate for themselves! And if they do, a quick glance over from myself, Allura, or Coran would be able to tell that it's not right."
"Uh huh," Lance said, going back to his game. "Did explaining all that to someone who can't comprehend it at all make you feel any better?"
For a moment, Pidge actually took the time to consider before answering. "Actually, yeah! It kind of totally did."
"And for the record, as the resident paladin who gets the most disciplinary action, I don't believe for a second that anyone would actually get upset with you over any of this," Lance informed the tiny paladin. "It doesn't even have a laser on it. So lame."
"Whatever, Lance," Pidge said, finally reaching for her tools.
The nagging thought at the back of his head officially bothering him, Lance sighed and switched his game to pause yet again. "Why're you so set on turning that little thing back on anyway, Pidge? You could fix up all sorts of tech that this castle has lying around if you wanted to. Probably wouldn't take all this extra effort either."
Having finally opened the robot up, Pidge frowned. "Yeah," she agreed. "I know. But… I don't know, I'm attached to Rover. Rover was a good friend. It only seems right to fix him up."
Lance quirked a brow at her. "Better friend than your living, breathing friends?"
"Almost," Pidge joked, a genuine smile curling on her lips. "Right now you all are just even with Rover. And when I'm done fixing him, he'll have a good chance of taking you all over."
"Well, that shouldn't be too hard for him, he's going to speak your language," Lance smirked back. "Literally – your little made up Altean-English language thing."
Surprised, Pidge blinked owlishly at Lance. "What? Were you actually paying attention to what I was saying earlier, Lance?"
"Maybe," he shrugged cockily. "But hey, what're friends for?"
He turned back to his game, waiting knowingly as Pidge fretted on the couch. When she finally stopped muttering to herself, Lance showed absolutely no surprise that she settled on the mat across from him.
"Can I join the next round?" she asked.
"Only if you're ready to be beat," he grinned, cracking his fingers' knuckles.
There was a confident sheen to Pidge's glasses as she readied her own screen. "We'll see about that."
