#fizzygingr

“If that’s all the business we have today,” Allura said to Kolivan on screen, “I think a few of the paladins are…somewhat impatient to speak with their former teammate.”

Hunk grimaced. He definitely wasn’t imagining the irritated look Allura shot at him.

“Very well,” Kolivan said, stepping out a frame, so that Keith could move front and center.

“Hey, guys,” Keith said with a small smile.

“Keith! Hi!”

“Hey, man! How have you–”

“Keith! Listen! I have to tell you about—”

Keith’s eyes widened, mouth opening and closing, not sure who to respond to first.

Shiro laughed. “Alright, okay, hold on. One at a time.” He stepped forward with his arms crossed over his chest. “Hey, Keith. How are you doing?”

“Hey, no fair!” Lance whined. “How come you get to go first?”

“Because he’s Shiro,” Pidge said. “Duh.”

“I’m doing okay,” Keith said, ignoring the argument in favor of Shiro’s attention. “I’m being sent on more missions now.”

“That’s good. That means they trust you.”

“Longer ones, too. So if you guys don’t hear from me for a while, don’t send a search party.” He shrugged, playing it off as a joke, but Hunk didn’t miss the flicker of unease in his eyes. He looked…lonely.

“As long as you’re being careful,” Shiro said.

“I am,” Keith said. “As careful as I can be, under the circumstances.”

Hunk’s heart clenched. He needed to cheer up Keith, and he needed to do it now.

He had an idea. He knew one thing that was proven to cheer everyone up.

“I’ll be right back!” he yelled, and dashed out of the room. When he returned, he was carrying a ridiculously large platter of space cookies.

“Did you just make these?” Lance asked, immediately grabbing a handful of cookies and shoving one of them into his mouth.

“No, of course not,” Hunk said, passing the platter around. “I was saving them for after dinner, but I wanted to show Keith. Look!” He held up one of the cookies for Keith to see. “No powering a teleduv with these babies!”

Keith laughed, but it was strained, and the longing in his eyes only grew worse. “That’s awesome, Hunk. Tell me about them?”

Hunk frowned. Telling Keith about the cookies was only going to make him want one, and he was supposed to be making Keith happier, not feel more isolated. He shook his head. “Nuh uh, no way, a chef never reveals his secrets. You’re just going to have to come get one.”

“Oh.” Keith glanced down and rubbed at the back of his neck. “I don’t think that’s possible right now.”

“I mean, not right this minute. But soon, right?”

“Kolivan is set to visit the castle in a few quintents, but I’ll be on a mission.” Keith’s shoulders slumped, and Hunk almost felt like crying. “I’m sorry, you guys. I just…I want to visit, but I…I can’t right now. I know you don’t understand, but–”

“We do understand, Keith,” Shiro spoke up, smiling gently at the screen. “You do what you need to do. We just miss you, that’s all.”

“Yeah,” Keith said. “I miss you too.”

After another few moments, Kolivan called for Keith, so they said their goodbyes and switched off the screen. “Well, quiznak,” Hunk muttered. “That was awful.”

“What are you talking about?” Lance said through a mouthful of cookie. “These are delicious.”

“I’m not talking about the cookies, Lance, I’m talking about Keith. Didn’t you see him? He’s miserable!”

“He did seem a little off,” Pidge said. “I know how badly he wanted to join the Blade, but they’re really not going easy on him, are they?”

“Guys,” Shiro called from the doorway. “You coming to the training deck?”

“We’ll be there in a minute, Shiro!” Hunk called back, and waited until Shiro was out the door before bringing Lance and Pidge closer. “Okay, huddle up, gang. We have to get that boy some cookies, stat. Operation Emergency Cookie Delivery is a go.”

Lance rolled his eyes. “And how, exactly, are we going to get cookies into the Blade of Marmora’s heavily fortified headquarters?”

“You heard Keith, Kolivan will be visiting the castle soon. We can just…”

“What, walk up to the totally humorless purple alien and say, ‘Hey, can you please give these cookies to our friend?’ He’s not gonna do it, and I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t want a lecture on how there’s no time for shenanigans from that dude. I’ve gotten enough of those from Allura.” Lance shifted. “And Shiro, lately,” he said, quieter.

“Wait a minute,” Pidge said, her eyes lighting up. “We don’t have to give them to Kolivan. We just have to make sure they get back with Kolivan.”

“Huh?”

“We can sneak them onto his ship!”

Hunk beamed. “Oh, yes, we can sneak around like secret agents, and wear disguises, and have walkie talkies, and–”

“Hold on,” Lance said. “We could get in big trouble for this.”

“Since when have you cared about getting into trouble?”

“I don’t! But honestly, we’re going to do all this just to get cookies to Keith?”

“Unless you have something better to do,” Pidge said. “You could go train with Shiro. I’m sure you can find something else for him to yell at you about.”

Lance scowled, and Hunk knew Pidge had gotten under his skin. “Fine. I’m in.”

“Alright!” Hunk clapped Lance on the back. “So what’s the plan?”

*

The Plan, unfortunately, did not include walkie talkies or disguises, which Hunk thought was a huge bummer. It did, however, include a working map of the castle Pidge devised to show everyone’s location at any given moment. Hunk hurried down an empty hallway with the package full of cookies under his arm and watched the little yellow blip on the screen mirror his location. “Are you sure everyone’s where this thing says they are?”

“Positive,” Pidge replied over the comm in his ear. “Allura and Coran–pink and white on your screen–are on the maintenance level, and Shiro and Kolivan–black and purple–are in the Black Lion’s hangar. You’re home free.”

“I thought I’d have a much cooler job than this,” Lance chimes in from his post in the security room. “Like maybe ‘the bodyguard’ or ‘the muscle’. Watching empty rooms is boring.”

“You’re not supposed to be watching the empty rooms, Lance, you’re supposed to be watching the ones with people in them.”

“Well, those are boring, too! All anyone is doing is talking.”

“Shut up, you guys, I’m trying to focus,” Hunk said, following the map the last few steps to the hangar where Kolivan’s ship was supposedly parked. “Okay. I’m here. Now how do I get in?”

“Okay, so the hangar is locked to everyone but those with the access code, which only Allura and Coran and the owner of the ship have for security reasons,” Pidge said. “However, I was able to devise an algorithm to cycle through all the possible combinations with regards to frequency of use and–”

“If I have to listen to you tech-babble, I’m turning my comm off,” Lance said.

“Ugh, fine. Hold the device on your wrist up to the access pad. It’ll display the code, and if it’s correct, you should just be able to walk in.”

“Here goes nothing.” Hunk did as he was told, and the hangar door slid opened with a hiss. “Nice, Pidge! I’m in.”

“Great! Do you see Kolivan’s ship?”

“Yep, I’m there.” Hunk ran his hand over the side of the ship. “Now if I could just figure out how to get the door–” Suddenly, the blips on the map in Hunk’s hand started moving, and moving fast. “Hey, Lance, what do you see in those cameras, buddy?”

“Hold on a second, I’m–” Lance inhaled sharply. “Uh oh.”

“What do you mean, ‘uh oh’?”

“I don’t, uh, see anyone. They’re all gone.”

“Oh, sweet quiznak,” Hunk said, the blips on the map starting to descend on his yellow dot.  

“Abort, abort, drop the cookies and get out of there!” Pidge yelled.

“Uh, okay, I’ll just, uh…” Hunk spun around in place, panicking. “How did this happen, how do they even know I’m in here?”

“You must’ve tripped some kind of alarm, a motion sensor or something Kolivan programmed into the ship.”

“Boy, those Galra think of everything, don’t they,” Hunk muttered.

“Hunk!”

“Okay, okay, but I can’t just leave these here. They’ll never get to Keith!”

“Forget about Keith!” Lance said. “Unless you want to deal with an angry Galra, you better get out of there!”

“Okay, fine, I’m–”

“Yellow Paladin!”

Hunk froze at the menacing growl, and turned slowly towards the door, swallowing hard as he faced the aforementioned angry Galra.

“What are you doing with my ship?” Kolivan snarled.

“Nothing!” Hunk squeaked. “Nothing, I promise, I was only trying to–”

“What is that package in your hand?”

“Oh god. Okay, I know what this looks like. This looks like a bomb, doesn’t it? Oh god it looks like a bomb. I should’ve just put them in a paper bag, nobody ever put a bomb in a paper bag–”

“A bomb?” Kolivan stepped closer and yanked Hunk forward by the arm, claws digging into Hunk’s shoulder. “Are you trying to sabotage my ship?”

“No, no, no! I said it’s not a bomb! Oh quiznak this is bad. I’m gonna be sick. I’m gonna throw up.”

“Hunk!” Allura sprinted into the hangar, Shiro trailing close behind, her eyes wide and her mouth agape. “What is the meaning of this?”

“Oh god,” Hunk said, “I’m so sorry.”

“Everyone just calm down,” Shiro said, moving between Hunk and Kolivan and placing a firm hand on Kolivan’s chest, forcing him to let go of Hunk and take a step back, for which Hunk was eternally grateful. “I’m sure there’s an explanation for all of this. Hunk?”

“Um. Yes. There is a…a perfectly good explanation.” Hunk took the package and unwrapped it, revealing the box of cookies inside. “See?”

Kolivan looked into the package and frowned. “Are these some sort of miniature tracking devices?”

“Tracking de…what? No! No, they’re cookies.”

“Cookies?”

“Cookies?” Shiro asked

“I’m afraid I don’t…understand,” Allura said.

All three of them looked to Hunk, who bowed his head and sighed.

“Okay, so, I made cookies, right?” he said. “And Keith, he saw them the other day, and he looked so sad! So I wanted to, you know, give him some cookies. So he would be…less sad.”

Shiro cocked his head. “So you were going to sneak them onto Kolivan’s ship?”

“In my defense, we were really, really bored, and it seemed like a good idea at the time.”

Allura raised an eyebrow. “We?”

“Oh yeah, Pidge and Lance were totally in on this.”

“Hunk!” Pidge yelled in his ear, at the same time Lance gasped, “Hey!”

“Yep, totally in on it, 100% not just my idea, whatever trouble I’m in they should be in, too.”

“Sellout,” Pidge muttered.

“You’re toast, big man,” Lance fumed.

Kolivan was still staring down at the plate of cookies, his brow furrowed. “So this is a gift of food for your former Red Paladin?”

“Uh, yeah, I guess,” Hunk said.

Kolivan nodded and took the package from Hunk’s hands. “Then I will deliver it to him.”

“Really?” Hunk grinned.

“It is a practical gift. He is little, and hungers often. He needs nourishment.”

“Oh, I’m definitely saving that one,” Lance snickered.

“I’m not sure if you heard that clearly,” Hunk said into the comm. “All I had to do was ask him to take the cookies to Keith, which I remember someone saying–”

“What? I can’t hear you!” Lance said. “The comm’s going dead! Hunk? Hunk? Are you still there?”

“Coward,” Pidge said as the line went quiet.

*

Later the next night, Hunk was lying on his back in his bunk, drifting off to sleep, when his communication devise buzzed. He groaned and rolled over, smacking around for it and squinting at the screen in the dark.

Control room. –K

Hunk shuffled out of bed, into his lion slippers and down the hallway to the main control room, where a light was blinking on his personal bridge display. He sat down and pushed the button with a yawn, and Keith’s face appeared on his screen. He looked tired, worn down, wearing just a thin t-shirt instead of his Blade armor, but he was all in one piece. Hunk supposed that was all they could ask for, at this point. “Hey, buddy,” he said with a sleepy smile.

“Hey,” Keith said, glancing over his shoulder. “I can’t talk long.”

“Did you get the cookies?”

Keith’s cheeks tinted red, and he scowled. “Yes, Hunk, I got the cookies.”

“Sweet.”

“Did you just…walk up to Kolivan and hand him these?” Keith sounded a little awestruck, and more than a little embarrassed.

“Well, no, not exactly,” Hunk said. “First we tried to sneak them onto his ship, but then we got caught, and I think he thought it was a bomb, so everyone freaked out for a minute…”

“Hunk!”

“But they turned out okay?”

Keith nodded, then reached for something off screen. When he sat back up, he had a cookie in his hand. “Last one.”

Hunk blinked. “You ate them all already?”

Keith’s face went even redder. “Yeah, well, it was a long mission. I was hungry.”

“Just like Kolivan said,” Hunk said under his breath.

“What?”

“What?”

“Nevermind, I…” Keith rubbed at his eyes, and Hunk could tell he was fading fast. “I just wanted to share the last one. With you. I know that sounds corny or whatever but I just…wanted to.”

All of the sudden, Hunk felt his eyes start filling with tears. “Yeah, Keith,” he said, his voice going thin as he sniffled. “I get it.”

“Don’t you dare!” Keith said, and his laugh was a little wet, like he was about to cry, too. “If you start, then I’ll start.”

“Alright, alright, I’m cool,” Hunk said, wiping a hand over his eyes. “I’m just glad you liked them.”

“They don’t taste like glass at all,” Keith said, deadly serious, and Hunk threw his head back with laughter. “What?”

“Nothing, man. I just miss you.”

“Yeah,” Keith said. “I miss you, too.”

But the lost, lonely look in his eyes was a little dimmer, and Hunk felt the vice around his chest loosen an inch or two. Sometimes it felt like there wasn’t much he could do to make his teammates’ hearts lighter, but when he could, he was so glad to do it. Even if it was something so little, like this. He was starting to realize even the little things were enough.