Allura had used some of the ship’s gadgets to fashion her a magenta knee-length dress with short sleeves and ballet flats.  She had then spent a couple hours pinning Pidge’s short honey-blonde hair back with a few tiny jewels.  Pidge knew that as the only other girl on the ship, Allura was really excited to have the opportunity to give her a makeover like this, but she was already nervous about this date and completely changing her entire look didn’t really help her anxiety.

When Lance had asked her for a date right in the middle of a mission (more accurately, in the middle of a particularly brutal fight), she’d been so stunned that she’d almost gotten blasted away and would have been if Lance hadn’t knocked her out of the way just in time.

“Is this really the right time for that?” she’d asked breathlessly.

“Well, I figured since we may or may not get out of this, I better stop putting off asking the question and just come out with it,” he’d answered in that infuriatingly confident voice of his.  “So how about it?”

After it was confirmed that the mission was won and they weren’t actually marked for death, Pidge had agreed.  It was obvious to everyone that she and Lance had a special connection, one she’d thought multiple times about furthering, but she was worried that taking the next step would ruin everything they shared.  What if this date was a disaster and they’d never be able to look each other in the eye anymore?  Or worse, what if their connection after tonight was so severed that they were never able to form Voltron again?

Pidge shook her head as she took off her glasses.

There was no use thinking of all the things that could go wrong. She might as well hope that everything went right.

But if the sinking feeling in her stomach was any indication, she had a bad feeling about this.

 ******

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Lance asked.  “I feel like a dork.”  He quickly turned to glare at Keith.  “Don’t say anything.”

Keith closed his mouth.

“You feel like a what?” Coran asked.

“Never mind.”

Lance looked in the mirror at the formal brown suit Coran had forced him to put on.  He felt so awkward.  When was the last time he’d worn a suit?  Had he ever worn a suit?

“I have read up extensively on Earth dates so we could ensure that everything goes perfectly for you and Number Five, and it is a well-known fact that you’re always supposed to dress your best.”

Lance supposed he should consider it lucky that Coran had dressed him in something normal instead of something outrageously hideous that was considered some kind of Altean traditional wear.

“Yeah, but I look…weird.”

“Nonsense.”  Coran turned to Hunk who was eating a snack in the corner.  “Will you tell him he looks great?  It’s also a well-known fact that one is supposed to have encouragement from his fellow men before one goes on a date.”

Keith shrugged.  “I’ve seen worse.”

Lance rolled his eyes.  “Perfect, that makes me feel so much better.”

Hunk smiled at his friend.  “Relax, you look awesome.  It’s about time you asked her out.”

Lance looked back in the mirror and smiled fondly as he recalled finally building up the courage to ask Pidge on a date.  Well, ‘building up the courage’ as in ‘being fired upon and wanting to die without regrets’.

He had to admit, he was kind of surprised she ended up agreeing. And even though he was nervous about taking this next step into the unknown with someone he admired so much, he was also excited about what might lay ahead for them.

“Well, I can’t keep her waiting,” Lance said.

He ran his hands over his gelled hair and went out to the main deck.

 *******

Pidge took a deep breath, and then walked out onto the main deck where she was to meet Lance.

She awkwardly cleared her throat, and he turned around. Her cheeks reddened when she watched him stare at her.  She noticed that he had dressed into a brown suit and gelled back his hair, and while she’d admit that he looked really handsome, it also felt strange to see him wearing something other than his gray t-shirt and brown jacket and his hair actually styled rather than him just running his fingers through it and calling it a day.

Lance wasn’t sure if he’d ever seen Pidge up close without her glasses before, but he’d never quite realized how pretty and striking her brown eyes were.

And he’d definitely never seen her in a dress.  He could feel his face warm as he looked at her shyly clutching the skirt of it in her hands and looking everywhere but at him.

Since when did she get nervous around him?

Lance confidently strode up to her and offered his arm. “Shall I show you to your table, milady?”

With a nervous and awkward smile, Pidge took his arm and he escorted her to the dining area where Allura, Coran, and the other Paladins had arranged a beautiful candlelit dinner for them.

Lance pulled Pidge’s chair out for her before sitting down himself.

It would be wonderful to say that Pidge’s fears were unfounded, the date went perfectly, and she and Lance chatted comfortably until the morning.

Unfortunately, this was not the case.

The dinner was a very long and awkward affair, and for both of them, it couldn’t end fast enough.  Neither of them seemed to be able to think of things to say, and there were so many stretches of silence that they both secretly hoped for a sudden Galra attack that would cut the date short.

Lance didn’t understand.  If Pidge was so against the idea of a date, why had she agreed in the first place?  Was it out of pity?  Did she just not want to hurt his feelings?  Had he read the connection between them completely wrong?

After what felt like an eternity, Pidge stood up from the table.  “I think I’ll head back to my room now.”

Lance stood up as well.  “Oh, let me escort you.”

“No!  No, that’s okay.  Thanks for the date, Lance.”

“Yeah.  Sure.”

Lance watched Pidge hurry away as if Zarkon himself was on her tail.  Geez, was he really that bad at dating?  Sure, he’d never actually been on a real date before despite being a (self-proclaimed) ladies’ man, but he didn’t think he would fail so spectacularly at it.

With a long and heavy sigh, he abandoned the table and the rest of their unfinished meal to go see Blue.  At least he still had a connection with her.

When he entered the hangar containing his massive mechanical lion, he felt Blue tensing up and getting ready to blow him to smithereens.

“Easy, girl, it’s me,” Lance said quickly.  “Come on, I don’t need you hating me too.”

He felt Blue relax.

“You didn’t recognize me in this getup, huh?”

A gentle prodding in his mind made him feel a need to explain why he currently wanted space to swallow him whole.

“I went on a date with Pidge.”

Lance could feel a jolt of surprise and then a kind warmth inside him.

“Yeah, well, let’s just say…it didn’t go well.  I don’t understand what happened.  We’ve always gotten along so well before.  Why should one date change everything?”  He flung off his suit jacket and leaned against Blue’s right paw.  “I mean, I’ve liked her for a while now which I’m sure you know.  I’ve been wanting to go on a date with her for ages.  I just wish she felt the same way.  Am I really that bad to hang out with?  I mean, that was one of the most painful experiences of my life.  I’d rather be shot by Sendak again than endure another dinner like that.  I just don’t get it.  We’ve always been comfortable around each other.”

Lance looked at his discarded suit jacket and recalled Blue’s feelings of unease when he first entered the hangar because she hadn’t recognized him when he’d first approached.

“Wait a minute…that’s it.  We’ve always been comfortable around each other.  But tonight, we weren’t our normal selves. We were trying to be someone else. No wonder it went so poorly.”

Lance quickly scooped up the suit jacket and started running out of the hangar.

“Thanks, Blue!”

With no time left to waste if he wanted to salvage what was left of their night, Lance changed back into his normal clothes, restored his hair to its usual mussiness, and rushed down to Pidge’s room.

“Pidge?” he called, knocking on her door.

No answer.

“Pidge, come on.  I’m not leaving until you at least give me a chance here.”

After a few more seconds of silence, the door slid open. Pidge had yet to change out of the dress, but she had put her glasses back on and had taken all of the pins out of her hair to let it resume falling naturally around her shoulders.

She looked down at the floor.  “What?”

“Let’s pretend that the last couple of hours never happened and completely start over.”

“Lance—”

“Come with me!”

Giving her no time to protest, Lance grabbed her hand, practically dragged her down to the hangar, and brought her onto Blue.

“What are you doing?” Pidge asked quickly.  “Where are we going?”

“Do you know why people date?”

The girl sighed.  “To get to know each other and see if they want to pursue a relationship?”

“Sure, that’s one reason.  Or people date because they genuinely enjoy spending time with each other and want a reason to spend even more time with each other and have fun together.  The problem is that we were doing things the first way.  We got dressed up and tried to make a good impression.  But we passed that stage months ago.  We probably know each other better than most couples by now. So instead of doing that, let’s go to the place where we’ve had the most fun so far.”

In a few minutes, Pidge’s lips curved up into a real smile for the first time all night.

Lance had brought her to the Space Mall.

“Do you think that mall security guy will remember us?” Pidge asked.

Lance shrugged.  “If he does, we’ll just figure out a way to escape before he can catch us.”

Now this seemed more like them: walking straight into the face of potential danger and deciding that they were just going to wing it.

Blue set down outside the mall and allowed her two passengers to disembark.

“We’ll be back in a bit, girl,” Lance smiled as he lightly rubbed his hand over her paw.  “While we’re gone, stay safe and don’t talk to strangers.”

Lance took Pidge’s hand in his and bounded inside the mall. Pidge couldn’t deny that she was rather charmed by his excitement.

“So where should we go first?” he asked her.

“We’ve only been to one store in here before.  I don’t even know what else there is.”

“Let’s hit up the food court.  I want to see if they’re still using Hunk’s dishes.”

Lance led the two of them down to the other end of the mall where several restaurants were advertising their various meals and desserts. Nothing looked particularly appetizing to them, but they nearly doubled over with laughter when they noticed that a poorly drawn rendition of Hunk’s face was hanging above the stall for Vrepit Sal’s along with the words ‘If it ain’t perfect, it ain’t coming out of this kitchen!’

“Oh, I cannot wait to tell him this,” Lance smirked.  “You want anything to eat?”

Pidge looked at a plate of what looked like tentacles.  “I think I’ll pass.”

“Probably a wise choice.”

When they passed by a clothing store, Pidge elbowed Lance and pointed out an utterly atrocious green full-body outfit with blue polka dots. “I dare you to try that on.”

“Dare accepted.”

So they walked into the store, and Lance tried on the outfit. Somehow, it looked even worse off the rack.  Pidge thought she might die of laughter when Lance stepped out of the changing room.

“You look like a sick leprechaun who ate too many marshmallows!” she gasped.

“All right, all right, you’ve had your fun, now it’s my turn.” Lance picked out a long tacky orange dress with horrendously puffy sleeves accompanied by a matching hat that was about the length of Pidge herself.  “Here you go.”

“I’m not wearing that.”

“If I’m looking like a fat, sick leprechaun, you can put on the universe’s worst red-carpet look.”

Pidge reluctantly took the dress from him and went into the changing room.  The beam overhead sized her up then zapped the dress and hat onto her body.

Pidge thought she might die of embarrassment when she stepped out of the changing room.  The dress was so long on her short body that it went well past her feet and the arms went so far past her hands that she couldn’t even roll them up.  The worst part was the hat.  Why anyone would want a hat so big was beyond her.  She couldn’t take one step without knocking clothing off the racks.

Lance tried to stifle his giggles but his efforts proved futile.  “This is worse than a failed red-carpet look.  This is like…this is like…I don’t even have any words.  It’s terrible!”

Pidge rolled her eyes and started laughing with him.  “I feel like an idiot.”

“Join the club.  I say we pick things we thing we might actually look good in now.  Here, try this on.”

Pidge took the new dress from him and quickly stepped back into the changing area.  She didn’t even care what he’d picked out, anything had to be better than this orange monstrosity.

The beam zapped off the dress she was half-wearing then zapped on the new one.  She was too nervous to look in the mirror, so she just stepped out.

Lance’s eyes widened when he saw her, and he could feel his face warm again.  “Whoa. Pidge…you have to get that.”

At his genuine reaction of admiration, Pidge turned around to look in the changing room mirror.  The dress Lance had picked for her was long-sleeved with a sheer neckline.  It faded between dark blue, indigo, purple, and pink, and stars clustered together all over it.  She looked like she was wearing a galaxy.

“You like it?” she asked quietly.

“It looks amazing,” Lance answered.

“I like it too.”  It definitely suited her much better than the magenta dress.  “I’ll get it then.”

“Okay, pick one for me.”

“But I like your shirt and jacket the most.”

“Well, then shirt and jacket it is.”

Lance went into the changing area and zapped out of the hideous green polka-dotted outfit and back into his normal clothing.

“As long as you don’t mind you looking so much better than me?”

“It’s not hard to do that,” Pidge smirked.

Lance laughed and went to the counter to pay for Pidge’s dress.

When they walked outside, he took her hand and smiled.  “Come on, we’ll go check out that Earth shop again. I want to see if they have any more video games.”

“Ooh, and I want to know if they have any add-ons!”

The two of them casually walked back to the only shop they were familiar with in the mall and once again happened upon the alien shopkeeper who dressed like a grandparent trying to fit in with the younger generation.

“Ah, welcome back, friends.  Tell me, how’s Kaltenecker?”

“She’s as beautiful and perfect as ever,” Lance smiled. “I’m not really sure why you gave us a free cow, but thanks!”

“Do you see anything else that interests you today?”

Pidge looked around the store.  “No, I don’t think we—Oh, my gosh!  You have Killbot Phantasm 10?  I didn’t even know there was a 5 through 9!  And look!  This one comes with 5 through 9 as an extra bonus!  How much is this?!”

The gray alien counted out on his fingers.  “That’ll be four thousand GAC.”

“Four thousand?!  Uh, will you take two thousand along with my sincerest thanks?”

“No.”

Lance gave the alien a charming smile and pulled out a small wallet.  “Relax, I’ve got this.  No more fishing for coins this time.”

He handed the alien the requested amount of money to pay for the video game.

“Pleasure doing business with you,” the alien smiled at them. “Feel free to stop by any time.”

As they left the store, Pidge clutched the video game to her chest.  “You didn’t have to do that.  You already paid for my dress.  We could’ve just come back later when I had the money.”

“But why do that when I have the money now?  Besides, you can’t think that you’re going to be playing that by yourself.  I’m going to be getting as much entertainment out of it as you are.”

“I think he overcharged you.”

“Probably, but I don’t think he gets a lot of customers. May as well let him have this.”

Pidge smiled to herself.  Lance had a pretty big ego and usually wasn’t afraid to let people know it, but that tiny act of kindness reminded her why she had fallen for him.

They continued walking through the mall and ended up at the same fountain they had gone searching for coins in the last time they’d been here.

Lance kicked off his shoes and jacket.

“What are you doing?” Pidge asked.

“I said we didn’t have to go fishing for coins again.  I didn’t say I couldn’t get in the fountain again.”

“But why would you want to?”

“Why not?”

That seemed to be Lance’s motto for life, and Pidge wondered how it hadn’t gotten him killed yet.

To the dismay of the aliens passing by the fountain, Lance ran up to it and splashed inside with a triumphant laugh.

Pidge rolled her eyes, hating how this kind of thing amused her.

“Come on!” Lance called as he ducked under one of the tiny waterfalls.  “The water is nice this time of year!”

Unable to resist, Pidge kicked off her shoes and set the video game down on top of their clothing.  Then she ran up to the fountain and jumped into the water.

As soon as she was standing in the fountain, feeling several new coins digging into her feet, Lance kicked a wave of water in her direction which drenched the entire bottom half of her new dress.

Pidge playfully glared at him and knelt down to splash him with both of her hands.  Lance ran around the fountain to come up behind her.  Then he put his arms around her waist, picked her up, and held her directly beneath one of the tiny waterfalls, effectively drenching all the places that had previously managed to stay dry.

Lance then gently dropped her, enough so that she didn’t hurt herself but she still fell over into the water.  Pidge kicked one of Lance’s legs out from under him and he fell down next to her with a large splash.  She laughed as she pushed his head under.

Lance came back up with small coughs and laughed even harder. “Hey, do you remember how I caught that one poor kid’s coin in my teeth?”

“I bet you couldn’t do that again,” Pidge smirked.

“Oh?  And what are we betting?”

“…A second date.”

Lance smirked back at her.  “It’s on.”

He hunched over and waited for a poor unsuspecting coin-thrower to approach the fountain.

Then he spotted one.  A small purple alien about the size of Pidge skipped up to the fountain and readied her coin in her four-fingered hand.  The second the alien flipped the coin, Lance leapt forward, burst through the tiny waterfall, and snatched the coin in between his teeth.

“Hey!” the young alien exclaimed.

Lance stood up on his feet again and flicked the coin back to her.  With a charming smile, he told her, “Sorry about that, I just needed to prove a point. Try again, I promise not to interfere this time.”

The female alien lightly blushed.  “Oh, that’s okay.”

Lance splashed back over to Pidge.  “And that is that.  So I believe that means a second date is on the table.”

Pidge couldn’t help smiling.  “I honestly didn’t think you were going to be able to repeat that.”

Lance swept his hand through his wet hair.  “I can’t believe you ever doubted me.”

“Can’t you?”

“Come on, let’s get back to the ship.”

Lance stepped out of the water fountain and held his hand out so he could help Pidge step out as well.  They retrieved the video game and their shoes but opted to continue walking around barefoot.  Instead of slipping his jacket back on, Lance lightly draped it over Pidge’s shoulders.

They were just about to step onto the escalator when they heard, “I thought I told you pirates not to come back here!”

Pidge and Lance frantically spun around to see Varkon on his tiny mall scooter.

“Run!” Lance yelled as he quickly snatched Pidge’s hand.

The two of them slid down the escalator railing and then booked it to the mall’s exit hallway, laughing the whole way.

Varkon stopped at the entrance to the hallway.  “And stay out this time!”

Lance turned around with a smirk.  “Never!”

“Why, you—!”

Whatever insult Varkon was about to come up with, which was surely going to be a terrible one, they never heard because they continued running down the hallway and didn’t stop running until they were back onboard the Blue Lion.

Lance quickly guided Blue back to the castle before Varkon decided to take any extra measures to ensure they didn’t come back to the mall (which they definitely were going to do).

Only moments later, they were back in the hangar in the castle.

“So how about we play some Killbot Phantasm 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10?” Lance asked.

Pidge gave him a devilish smile, completely forgetting they were still soaking wet.  “I hope you know that victory is already mine.”

“I’ve already squashed your expectations once tonight. There is nothing stopping me from doing so again!”

“You’re on!”

The two of them quickly ran out of the Blue Lion and down to Lance’s room where the video game system was already hooked up.

It took about two minutes for them to become completely invested in the game.

“Hey, Lance?” Pidge said, her eyes still on the screen. It was going to be much easier to say this when they were mostly focused on something else.  “I had a good time tonight.”

“I did too,” Lance answered as he frantically pushed several buttons at once.

“I was…worried that us going on a date would…ruin things. I was even afraid we might not be able to form Voltron again if it went poorly.”

“Aw, Pidge, no matter how this turns out, I’ll never let our friendship be ruined to that extent.”

Pidge blushed.  “You know, for the record, I was going to go on a second date whether you caught that coin or not.”

This time, Lance blushed.  “Well, I think we can definitely agree on one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Coran and Allura are not allowed to help on our dates anymore.”

 *******

Allura, Coran, and the rest of the Paladins found Pidge and Lance the next morning fast asleep in front of Lance’s TV.  With the video game’s main 8-bit theme continuing to play softly in the background, Pidge, still wearing his jacket, had curled up next to Lance and his arm loosely draped around her waist to hold her close to him.