#voltronsecretsanta2k19

* * *

“Oof!” Pidge cried over the comms, though Lance couldn’t see her in the meter-tall snow. He shook off the dizziness from the drop and the snow that made it under his armor before trudging to shallower depths.

Pidge emerged eventually, very much disgruntled. “They deactivated everything,” she said darkly.

Unable to follow her train of thought, he asked, “Who did what?”

“Allura and Coran!” she answered, looking up at the Castleship hovering above them. “They deactivated my scanners and sensors—we’re literally lost in here!”

“Not forever,” Coran’s pleasant voice—turned unpleasant by the situation—reminded. “Accomplish Allura’s tasks, and we’ll be right down to get you both.”

“No! Get us out of here right now! I apologized to Vir already!”

“No can do, Number Five.”

“When I get back there,” Pidge growled, “I’m going to make you pay, Allura.”

Allura met her aggression with calm assertiveness: “I’d like to see you try.”

“Uhh, Pidge?” Lance called from behind Pidge, but she couldn’t be bothered to spare him any attention when she was still busy scowling at the Castle.

“What?”

“Are you up for another snowball fight?” he asked.

Preoccupied as she was, she missed the apprehension in his voice. “How could you even ask that? That’s exactly what got us in this position!”

“D-Do you want to fight a snowman, then?”

“I don’t think that’s how the old classic film goes!”

Lance groaned. “Stop retorting!”

“Then stop trying to get smart with me!” She turned to redirect her glare at him, but all her fuming anger dissipated when she saw what had him spouting nonsense. Numerous creatures were running towards them, snow-white and menacing. Suddenly, his nonsense made absolute sense.

Pidge summoned her bayard as Lance started shooting. It took only three shots from his bayard for them to realize that these creatures were made entirely of snow and were thus, basically, invincible.

For the second time in ten minutes, they both screamed, sprinting and fighting their way to higher ground.

“We’re gonna die! And not even because of Paladin stuff!” Lance whined.

Pidge scoffed at him. “Technically, they can’t harm us and we can’t harm them.” She released her grapple at an elephant-like snow creature. It reverted to its original lifeless form, hopefully permanently.

“They can bury us in snow! Our suits can’t regulate freezing temps for too long… we can die of hypothermia even if we don’t get wounded!”

“Stop overreacting, Lance. We just have to lose them and find a place to wait everything out.”

“Or—” Lance paused to evade a pouncing creature. It looked like one he’d seen in Syrma, although very malformed. “Or we could just do what Allura said and talk.”

She didn’t respond. He thought she was just finishing off the last few creatures attacking her. When she still hadn’t spoken after they’d been running for some time, he brought up his suggestion once more.

“Look, the sooner we do what we have to do, the sooner we’ll get out of here.” He caught a few breaths before continuing. “Don’t you want to go back?” he baited, if only to get a reaction out of her.

She shot him a glare. “Of course I do.”

“But…?” he encouraged, but she’d clammed up again. “What’s stopping you, Pidge?”

“I just—” she began. Her next words were interrupted by growling noises and sounds of many, many things lumbering and plodding through the thick layer of snow.

Lance and Pidge moved in sync to protect each other’s backs. Their training and survival instincts kicked in no matter how upset they were with each other. The creatures circled them hungrily—or as hungrily as their snowy features allowed.

Everything stilled in that one instant before the first of the pack leapt at the two.

“Go on,” Lance said as he shot at a three-headed alien snow creature.

“What?” Pidge asked, glancing over her shoulder.

“You were saying something.”

“Seriously? Now?”

“You said these things can’t wound us! So let’s get this over with!” More slashing sounds but no response from Pidge. “Pidge, c’mon!”

“I’m scared what you’ll say about me!”

Now he was the one to fall silent. Some alien snow Yeti charged at him. He slammed his shield into it, hearing Pidge do the same behind him.

That move seemed to keep the other creatures at bay. They circled them again with bloodlust and wariness. Lance and Pidge watched, ready for another wave of attack.

“You can go first,” Lance said at length, eyes following the wolf-like snow at the forefront of the pack.

Pidge almost whirled to face him but caught herself at the last second. “What?” She felt rather stupid having to ask the question twice within such a short period of time. Usually she was the one answering it, not the one asking. She really was out of her element in this odd situation in this unknown planet.

“You can go first,” he repeated, then shot at the snow-wolf just at it lunged at him. The others followed suit, and the fighting resumed.

His offer left her immobilized for a few moments—long enough to let a weird alien rat snow to get past her defense. A timely kick did the job, but it didn’t get rid of the sudden increase in the tension she felt.

“Pidge,” Lance grunted as he wrestled a creature near his size. “Are you… gonna do it or—?”

“You always let girls compromise our missions,” she blurted out, launching the bladed tip of her bayard to stab the snow creatures in its path.

He knocked down his current enemy before replying. “Hey, that was one time!”

“Is it?” Her doubtful tone made him reconsider as they finished off the remaining enemies and started running again.

“Okay,” he conceded, “maybe a couple times. But it’s not always!”

She moved on as if she hadn’t heard him. “Two. You act like you know everything.”

They were making their way up a hill now, jetpacks aiding their hike, Pidge watching their front while Lance guarded their back. His steps slowed at her words. “I had to. It’s the only time you correct me and I actually learn stuff.”

Pidge remained silent for a few minutes. She really didn’t want to do this. Not because she was scared of confrontations—she could deal with those—but because she didn’t want to hurt Lance and be hurt in return. She didn’t want to lose one of the only friends she had, and this talk was like the shortcut to losing one if they couldn’t work things out. At the same time, she felt the necessity of all this, for reasons yet unknown to her.

So she continued: “Three. You always protect others at the cost of your own safety.”

She heard a huff over the comms. “That’s what a Paladin does, Pidge!”

“No, Lance. That’s what someone who thinks they’re replaceable and unimportant does.”

The ensuing silence allowed them to catch the light crunching of snow to their right. Judging from the lack of obvious shuffling noises that bulkier snow creatures announced themselves with, Pidge expected this group to be more agile on average. She and Lance regained their breaths as they prepared for the next round of fighting.

Lance still hadn’t rebutted her. That fact made her uneasy. Very uneasy. “Do you… Do you think you are?”

“Just get ready for those creatures,” he replied, but his non-answer was a clear answer for her: yes. And she hated that more than his notorious self-sacrificing habit.

“I’ll change number three, then.” The first of the snow creatures showed themselves. Pidge planted her feet to the ground, lowered her posture, and re-centered her balance. “I hate that you think you’re replaceable—” She slashed at a distorted griffin-like creature. “—or unimportant—” Then garroted a six-legged creature with her bayard’s cord. “—or whatever it is you think of yourself.” Assuming he wouldn’t respond to that, she kept talking. “Four, you keep bugging me even if I want to be alone.” Another winged creature fell as snow at her feet. “Especially when I ask you to leave me alone.”

“I just can’t leave you alone.”

She frowned in confusion. “Why?”

“Because…” A few shots went off behind her. “Nobody really wants to be alone when they say they do.”

Her frown deepened. “That doesn’t make sense.”

“Does to me,” he said so nonchalantly she actually heard him shrug.

They lapsed into contemplative silence as they crested the hill.

“Five,” Pidge huffed once they did. “I hate… that whenever Hunk and I run off to do something fun… I’ll turn around and not find you there.”

Lance had stationed himself atop a slab of ice a little farther in front and to her left, on the lookout for incoming enemies and a possible hideout, so she couldn’t see his reaction. She couldn’t hear anything other than his heavy breaths over the coms, either. Thinking that she’d done her worst, she sighed.

“I always thought you didn’t want me to follow.”

She jumped a bit. Both at his sudden reply and its meaning. “Why would you think that?”

“Because whenever I try to go after you guys, you’re already gone.” His voice sounded neutral and blasé, as if he was used to the fact. As if he’d already resigned himself to it.

Her heart sank at that. She made to move towards him, but her eyes caught something dark in the distance. It looked like… She gasped. “Lance, look!”

His gaze followed the direction she was pointing at, then directed the scope of his blaster for a better view. He gasped, too. “It’s an opening to a cave!”

They looked at each other with hopeful eyes and were about to set off when another pack of snow creatures emerged from the snowy woods to their right. They groaned.

“Don’t these things ever run out?!” Pidge complained as she slashed a creature in its chest.

“Guess not!” Lance shouted back, parrying a three-tiered snowman’s snow arms with his blaster.

She growled. “This is getting exhausting!”

“Here, let me rile you up,” he said, and she could tell what would come next.

Adrenaline rushed throughout her body. He’d already riled her up with just his preface; she wasn’t sure she could hear the rest without being distracted. She knew why, of course. She just didn’t ever want to admit it.

Lance took a deep breath to calm his nerves and regain his focus. He needed to keep what was left of his cool in order to fend off these annoying things and say his piece. “First thing I dislike about you…” He blasted two creatures in the head. “You never explain anything.”

The slicing noises from Pidge’s side grew aggressive following his words. “I do explain stuff!”

“Not to me,” he retorted, glaring at the next creature to attack before decimating it with a tad too many shots from his bayard.

“But you never ask anything!”

“You didn’t really—” He kept shooting even as more creatures appeared. “—make it easy for me.” Snow piled at his feet as the creatures turned back to snow. He heard her indignant huff but preempted her protest. “That’s why I always act like I know everything when I don’t know anything at all.”

It was Pidge’s turn to fall silent again. This alternating routine between them was getting funnier with every repetition. Add to that their current situation and the event that started all of this, and Lance would’ve died of the ridiculous hilarity of it all. Now if only he wasn’t one of the two exhausted people being chased by alien snow creatures.

Through a mix of strategy and luck, Pidge opened a gap for them to escape through by releasing her grapple to pierce a group of similar-looking snowies that had lined up to attack them. And they booked out of there, sprinting down the hill in the direction of the cave.

“Next,” Lance panted. Pidge didn’t react; he supposed she was too tired to respond. Understandable. He’d rather not speak when his lungs were already working overtime, too, but he knew that the only way to get back to the Castle was to have this uncomfortable discussion. And right now, he wanted nothing more than sleep in his bed cocooned in lots of blankets and pillows. “You… always run… off somewhere… I couldn’t follow.” He was still running at full speed when Pidge suddenly decreased her pace. He maneuvered mid-stride so he wouldn’t crash into her. “Hey! Why’d you—”

“Is that why you’re… not there when…?” she asked between puffs, turning towards him.

He was reluctant to meet her eyes, what with guilt and comprehension coloring her tone, so he waved a dismissive hand in front of his face. “Let’s keep running.” They could talk more later in safety. Continuing where he’d left off once they were on the move again, “Three. I hate that… you close yourself off… when something bothers you.”

All he got for that was a grunt, making him release a heavy breath.

“Yup. My point exactly.”

“My problems aren’t… your business.”

“It is if… they affect… someone important to me.”

They approached the foot of the hill with speed and caution. The cave waited for them just a hundred meters ahead, the shadowy silhouette of its mouth stark against the white blanket of snow, beckoning for them to take refuge. Get past the horde of snow creatures between them and the cave, and they would be safe in the meantime. Lance hoped that he and Pidge wouldn’t be sharing the hideout with another living thing out to get them.

A strategy formed in his mind while he studied the terrain and the rabid creatures before them. “Pidge,” he said, holding out his arm to stop her advance. “I’ve got an idea.” He felt her eyes on him, indication that he had her attention. “Let’s blast our way through their ranks. You go ahead and check if the cave is safe. I’ll clear a path for you and follow right after.”

Pidge nodded. “It’s a plan.” And she crouched, getting ready to sprint on his mark.

“I hate that you get all grumpy and violent whenever I talk about girls,” he squeezed in at the last moment. He didn’t want to dwell on it—at all. Hopefully she’d be too distracted and wouldn’t dwell on it, either. Much better if she’d ignore it completely.

“W-Wait, what?” she sputtered.

“Ready?”

“Lance!”

“Three, two, one. Go!”

Despite his blindsiding, Pidge set off without missing a beat. Quick recovery as always. That’s Pidge for you, he thought in admiration, summoning his bayard to start shooting at the creatures at the vanguard as he and Pidge charged by their twosome.

The creatures from this horde were larger than the previous ones, more agile and well-formed. It had taken Lance a rather long time to clear a path for Pidge. But the moment he did, she launched her grapple at the cave’s entrance and prayed it had something to hook to. Prayer answered. Using her jetpack, she jumped over the remaining distance that separated her and Lance from safety.

Pidge examined the dark interior as fast and thoroughly as she could with the limited light of her suit’s flashlight. She felt ill at ease having all her upgrades—developed to be useful for any contingency—overridden and deactivated on Allura’s command. Well, she could exact her revenge for being unnecessarily endangered like this later. She shone the light on every corner. Ground: devoid of snow. Walls: clear. Other end of the cave: covered with the same rocky walls surrounding her. Most importantly: no other living thing in sight. “Clear!” was her verdict.

She heard Lance’s whoop over the comms, accompanied by the crescendo of rabid growls and crushing snow. He was near; waiting on standby by the cave’s mouth to cover his entrance and get rid of the creatures hot on his heels would be best.

There was one thing she couldn’t wait about, though.

“Also, I so do not get violent or grumpy!”

“That right?” he huffed out, tone dubious. “So ‘accidentally’… hitting me when I… used to… talk about Allura—” Shots and whimpering sounds. “—and ignoring me for days… after fans ask for photos with me… are not violent and grumpy?”

Pidge fell into a sulky silence. She’d finally gained a visual on Lance’s helmet, so she directed a glare at it. It wasn’t like she could rebut anything he said, anyway.

“Like what, you jealous or something, Pidge?” he asked off-handedly, but even the comm-link couldn’t filter out the nervousness in his voice.

Her body returned to its fight-or-flight mode, and not because of creatures aiming their fangs at her neck. “Why don’t you answer your own question?”

“Don’t wanna… make a wrong answer.”

“You’ve got a fifty-fifty chance. You’d have to be unlucky to make the wrong one.”

He didn’t reply for a few moments. “Then… wild guess…” He was now close enough to the cave that she could probably lasso him if he neared the entrance a little more. “You’re jealous?” he hazarded in a hopeful tone, one he seemed to be trying—and failing—to keep away from his voice.

Pidge’s cheeks heated up at being found out. Nonetheless, she admitted to it with a very quiet “So you know.”

A shocked “—What?” went over the comms immediately after, but there was no time to elaborate. Lance had reached the effective range of her bayard. With snow creatures still close behind him, she determined that lassoing was the fastest way to get him to safety.

“I said…” Pidge activated her bayard, calculating the amount of force and timing needed to pull Lance away. “I’ll lasso you now.”

“What?!”

She aimed her bayard at him and released. Its cord wound around him a few times before the grapple hooked itself under his breastplate. Then she gave one hard yank, Lance screaming as her bayard powerfully reeled in the cord—and him—towards her.

After an instant release of his restraints, a sweeping survey of his surroundings, and quick thinking on his part, Lance shot at the hanging slabs of rock near the cave entrance. The rocks fell piece by piece, boulders sealing the creatures out and trapping the two of them in, at least until they were done with Allura’s tasks. The tasks were getting more embarrassing and difficult to do as they progress; he wasn’t sure he could go through this without the distraction of shooting at snowy things.

He could estimate Pidge’s position beside him based on the glowing marks on her armor, though he couldn’t see the expression on her face. Maybe that was why she wouldn’t turn on her suit’s flashlight or allow him to light his. Maybe that was for the best.

The silence would’ve been deafening if not for the scratching, shuffling noises outside the blockade. Neither of them spoke for a long time.

Unable to bear the tension anymore, Lance cleared his throat, which had suddenly become dry. “So… do you get jealous those times? Is-Is that why… you do what you do?”

“…I thought you already made a guess.”

“Yeah, but you have to explicitly confirm if it’s right or wrong, or it’ll stay as a guess.”

Pidge huffed. “Can’t you just infer? Why do you need explicit confirmation?” The glowing marks on her shoulders moved—probably to cross her arms.

“B-Because!”

“Yeah?”

“Because it would make it easier to say the last thing I dislike about you.”

She heaved a sigh. “Fine. You guessed right. Happy?”

His face flushed with heat and heart picked up its pace again. Physical exertion a few minutes ago and now emotional exertion? Man, he was being pushed to his absolute limits. As Pidge suggested, he inferred the rest. The happy giddiness that came with his conclusion sent his heart in a frenzy; he worried that it might burst if this went on longer, so he continued their talk.

“No, because that means you think I prefer someone else’s attention over yours.” He didn’t miss the quiet gasp that escaped her, and he couldn’t stop the grin spreading wide across his face. “I hate that you’ve convinced yourself that you’re not girly enough to be beautiful. Just being a girl is girly enough. And just because you don’t do or like what other girls do doesn’t make you any less beautiful.” Pidge’s confirmation had dispelled most of his hesitation, allowing him to be as honest and open as he wanted. “Do you even know how amazing you are? Have you seen your eyes when you’re intent on making everything go your way? Wait, of course you haven’t. But it’s like they’re alight with fire. If you saw them, you wouldn’t want to look a—”

“Wait, stop! Stop!” Pidge cut in with a flustered voice. “Can you even hear what you’re saying?!”

“Of course I can! I have ears! So please let me finish and don’t make me say all of this again!”

“No, no! I’ve heard enough—”

“But I haven’t said enough—”

“No, you have!”

“Pidge—”

“Just tell me one thing you like about me!” she cried out, finally silencing his protests. Even the shuffling sounds outside had paused at her outburst. “That’ll be enough. I’ll do the same.”

* * *

“I’ll do the same.”

“I don’t think we should be seeing this,” Keith said, face the same color as his Lion. His hand moved towards the main panel of the bridge, but it was pushed away by Hunk.

“Allura said we should keep an eye out for them—or ear. Right, Allura?” Hunk threw the question over his shoulder to where Allura stood watching from the center of the bridge, deeply engrossed with the video feed and hands clasped to her chest.

“Hunk’s right,” she replied. “But we should send Blue and Green out to fetch their Paladins.”

Coran quietly followed her command so they could all hear the rest of the conversation over the comm link. A glance at the panel screens showed that the Lions had left their hangars.

“Okay.”

* * *

“Okay. Let’s say it at the same time,” Lance suggested.

“But our answers will overlap,” Pidge argued.

“But it’s less embarrassing than saying it one at a time.”

She hummed in thought. “That’s true.” Her hands began to sweat beneath her space suit. “On three?”

“Three.”

“Two.”

“One.”

“You.” “You.”

The universe stilled when she uttered her answer and heard his voice blend with hers with the exact same answer.

“Then… Then why…” she breathed out but couldn’t continue. Her lungs were short on air. Her heart thundered in her chest. Her whole body felt hot despite being in a planet frosted over with snow, breaking the rules of thermoregulation.

“Why what?” Lance asked. He sounded as breathless as she was, and the fact that she wasn’t the only one calmed her just enough to get more words to pass her lips.

“Why did you throw that first alien snowball?”

“Because… some Syrmi was getting too friendly with you, and I wanted to return your attention to me and keep it on me.” Lance knew that Pidge couldn’t see him, but he looked away in shame, anyway. All this was, in all actuality, his fault. He prepared himself for some reprimand, but Pidge’s reply caught him off-guard.

“You can just ask for it, you know?”

“I-I can?”

“…Yeah.”

“Well, can I have it now?”

“S-Sure.”

“And can I keep it?”

“As long as you want.”

Every question and answer grew more hushed than the exchange before them, until they were mere whispers, barely audible even to Pidge and Lance. Unconsciously, their hands sought each other in the dark, guided by the faint glow of their armors. With their hands intertwined, the rest of their bodies moved to follow, their heads closing the inches, centimeters, millimeters of space between them.

But then the ground shook, knocking their helmets lightly together.

“What the—?” Lance began, but Pidge shushed him.

“Listen!”

Silence from outside the cave. The shuffling noise of the snow creatures had stopped.

The ground shook again, and their hideout’s barricade of rocks crumbled. Light poured in, momentarily blinding them as their eyes readjusted. Despite their temporary loss of vision, they could feel two familiar presences waiting for them beyond the cave’s entrance. They knew exactly who those were.

Pidge and Lance grinned.

“Our rides are here, Lance!”

“Finally!”

* * *

“Alright! Lance and Pidge are a thing now!” Hunk cheered. “Which means I’ll be prepping a feast, Allura will be prepping for Pidge’s revenge—”

“I’m ready,” Allura interjected confidently and all too happily.

“Good to know, Allura. Pidge is merciless, as we’ve seen.” He turned from Allura to Keith, who was sulking in the Red Paladin’s seat with his arms crossed. “And Keith will be prepping himself to follow my command as the loser of our bet.”

“Do your worst,” Keith replied. He trusted Hunk with his life, but not so with his pride. And judging by the gleeful gleam in Hunk’s eyes and his love of pranks rivaling Pidge’s and Lance’s, there was just no telling what the guy would make Keith do for two whole months.

“Okay. You ready, Keith?” Hunk asked, chuckling in excitement. “Oh boy, this’ll be fun.”

Keith tried not to panic.

“For the next two months, I command you to…” There was a pause. It was too long for comfort. “…hang out much more with all of us.”

The penalty was so light and unexpected that it went over Keith’s head at first and didn’t sink in for a long time. It took Hunk’s huge grin, Shiro’s kind, lopsided smile, Allura’s gentle smile, and the welcoming expression on Coran’s face for Keith to succeed in processing Hunk’s command.

And once he did, he couldn’t help smiling back.

“I think I can do that.”

* * *

Lance had been hanging out with Pidge in Green’s hangar after a suspiciously celebratory dinner when he remembered something they’d missed. “We’ve never actually worked out five ways we can meet halfway,” he noted.

Pidge stopped tinkering with a prototype of an Altean version of Rover. “You’re right. It’s a good thing Allura forgot about it and let us back in.”

“Maybe she didn’t see the need for it anymore.” When she looked at him in confusion, he clarified, “Because we don’t hate each other anymore?”

“Huh.” She shrugged. “Guess it doesn’t matter now.”

Lance sat up in his chair, rolling it closer to her. “Wanna do it anyway?” he asked.

Pidge put down Rover 2.0.1 and faced him. She couldn’t really say no when he looked so eager. “Fine.”

“Okay. I won’t let girls compromise missions anymore. Unless you’re compromised. Then that’s a different matter.”

She rolled her eyes even as heat rushed to her cheeks. “I’ll make sure to explain stuff to you. But I can’t always tell when you don’t get what I’m saying, so you’ve got to ask me, too.”

“Got it. Hmm, what’s next? Oh.” He gave her a serious look. “Please try to open up when something bothers you, Pidge. You’re not alone. I won’t annoy you if I can help it,” he promised, and she believed him.

“I promise to wait for you. I won’t leave you behind again.”

“And I promise to always follow you.” He held out a pinky. She raised her brows at the childishness of it but humored him nonetheless. “Pinky promises are the real unbreakable vows.” They laughed.

“Last one,” Pidge said as her laughter faded into somberness. “You’ve got to stop putting yourself in harm’s way for others all the time.”

Lance averted his gaze. He made to turn away from her, but she’d already read his intention and so had gently cupped his face with her hands to stop him. His eyes remained adamantly trained elsewhere. Fine by her; he just needed to listen to what she had to say.

“Let’s state the facts here,” she said. “Out of billions of humans on Earth, Blue chose you. She’d waited for ten thousand years just for you to chance upon the cave she was hidden in. She could’ve chosen any of us, but she still chose you. Do you know how small your chance was? Almost nonexistent. And yet here you are, Paladin of the Blue Lion. Just from that you’re already irreplaceable.”

His eyes slowly met hers, and a thrill ran down her spine. She hadn’t known that they were this shockingly blue up close.

When did we even get this close? she wondered vaguely, too mesmerized by his eyes to give it any more thought.

“Also, as of today you’re the only person in the universe who holds my attention. You’re the sole keeper of it. If you go, all my attention goes with you.”

He released a quiet chuckle, his breath mingling with her breath. “Is that how it works?” he whispered, but she heard him loud and clear.

They were much closer now, she absently noted, and much closer when their noses touched. Her eyes fluttered shut.

“It is to me. You’re important, Lance. I can prove it.”

“Okay, prove it,” she felt him say.

She pressed her lips to his—slowly, gently but with no hesitation. Never hesitation. He kissed her back eagerly and just as gently.

The moment was brief, but it was warm. It thawed the uncertainties that had frozen her decisions and melted the fears that ran her blood cold. Somehow, she knew that she’d be okay. She knew that her path forward would no longer be as bleak.

“Believe me now?”

“Yeah.”

Pidge smiled.