Chapter 1: Apparently Mother Nature Visits in Space

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"You want what?" Hunk asked, staring at the youngest paladin with a quirked brow.

"You know, those smooth disk things you made that one time," Pidge said, flattening her hands together in a circular motion. "We used it to teleport-"

"I know what you're talking about," Hunk said, putting his hands on his hips. "But I didn't think you liked those cookies."

Pidge shuffled her feet nervously, pushing up her glasses with a finger. "Uh, well I don't exactly…" At Hunk's crestfallen expression the green paladin quickly shook her head, laughing nervously. "I mean- but I really want them now!"

Hunk didn't exactly believe her but he did catch her shoveling some of the green goop into her mouth late last night when he ventured into the kitchen for a midnight snack. He also remembered thinking whether or not it was actually midnight. Altean time measurements use 20 vargas in a day so technically it was ten at night?

Hunk rubbed his temple. Space math.

"Earth to Hunk," Pidge said, tip toeing to wave her hand in front of his face.

"Technically we're in space so I can't Earth," Hunk said, holding his chin in his hand. "Would it be space to Hunk?"
"Hunk!" Pidge exclaimed, barely stopping herself from stomping her foot. "Focus! I'm starving."

"Now you know how I feel all the time," Hunk said happily.

Pidge narrowed her eyes, pouting. "I'm not throwing up though am I?"

"Harsh," Hunk said with a chuckle. "Maybe I shouldn't make you cookies. How about that?" The yellow paladin was surprised to see the eyes of the youngest member of the team go glassy as her lower lip trembled. Oh no. He made her cry. He was making Pidge cry. Holy crow- he's the worst friend to ever friend. "Uh…Pidge…are you going to-"

"No!" she exclaimed, ears heating up at the tip. "I'm just-" She groaned, frustrated. "I'll be in my room," she grumbled, storming out of the kitchen.

Hunk watched her go, confusion creeping its way into him. He heard someone greet her happily and Shiro ventured into the room a frown on his face.

"Hunk, did you make Pidge cry?" he asked, genuinely confused.

There was no malice in his tone, no anger hidden beneath the words and yet-

"Oh quiznak!" the large paladin blubbered and Shiro was left patting his back.

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Pidge found stacks of cookies as tall as herself outside her door that night.

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If there was one thing they all knew about Pidge was that she was strong. Not once did they falter in their belief or worry about her not being able to withstand any missions they set for her.

There was only one time Keith's confidence in that wavered and it was mostly because he was confused.

It wasn't often he found Pidge on the training deck. He liked to come there to clear his head and get a few rounds of practice in. He certainly didn't expect to find her sprawled on her side at the edge of the training room, face towards the wall. Now it wasn't odd to find the green paladin asleep in random places throughout the castleship. She often dozed off because she lost track of time tinkering with some new piece of technology she found. But seeing her here-

"Pidge!" Keith exclaimed, running towards her and sliding onto his knees. He placed a hand on her shoulder, rolling her to her back. "Are you hurt?" He immediately thought about the time the training system malfunctioned and how dangerous that ended up being. Maybe Pidge picked one level too high-

"I'm fine," she said through gritted teeth. She had her hands wrapped around her abdomen and she rolled back onto her side, hiding her face from him.

"Do you want me to get Coran?" Keith prodded. "He can put you in the healing pod-"

"I'm fine," she repeated adamantly. "Just go on and train. I'll be here."

"In the corner." Keith stated pointedly.

"Yes."

Keith stood hesitantly, eyeing her warily before making his way to the center of the room. Obviously he knew something was wrong but he didn't see any bruises or blood so he tried to shrug the concern away.

Unsuccessfully.

"Exercise is supposed to help," he heard her mutter about fifteen minutes into training.

"Help with what?"

Silence.

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Pidge had to tell someone. Being sucked into space without any preparation all that time ago meant she was short on a couple necessities. Allura was really nice about it. She didn't quite understand because her Altean body was different than Pidge's own.

One little thing she wasn't expecting though- Coran overheard. The older man burst into the room exclaiming that if Number Five was in need of any assistance he would be there to help. He stared at her, bent at the hip, twirling his mustache.

"Please stop looking at me like that," Pidge said, leaning back.

"Like what?" the man asked. "Human bodies are quite similar to ours-"

"Allura can change her appearance-"

"Perhaps we can come up with an antidote to stop the bleeding," Coran continued, tapping a finger on his chin as he thought of all the different hormones and processes that need to be accounted for. "I may need to run some diagnoses-"

Pidge slumped into her seat. "Not what I meant."

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When Shiro spotted a little bit of red on Pidge's shorts he got mad. They just finished fighting some hostile aliens and though everyone was bruised and aching he didn't know she had received any type of wound that pierced her skin.

Pidge was the first to change out of her suit. It had started to malfunction and because of some exposed wires he insisted she change as soon as possible. He'd rather not have their resident techy short circuit.

Pidge felt Shiro's eyes on her and turned to see his eyebrows knit together in anger, fists clenched around the helmet he held.

"Uh, are you okay Shiro?" she asked.

"Katie, which one of them hurt you?"

"What?" Pidge questioned, tilting her head. When Shiro used her real name she knew things were serious.

"You're bleeding," he pointed out.

Pidge glanced over her shoulder, grabbing the hem of her shorts before blushing bright red. "Oh that. That's nothing."

"What do you mean nothing?" Shiro asked. His voice was calm but she could sense a storm brewing inside of him. "I knew things were getting hectic and we had to fight outside of our lions but-" He pinched the bridge of his nose. None of it really made a difference but sometimes… He couldn't help it. He wouldn't let what happened to Matt happen to her. Sometimes he could forget just how young Pidge was. And small. Shiro's waist was practically as wide as her whole body.

"Shiro, relax." Pidge said. "Really it's nothing. And even if it was we've had worse injuries. Remember Lance?"

"Remember me what?"

Lance walked into the room, hands stuffed into his jacket.

"Shiro's freaking out over a little bit of bleeding." Pidge said with a shrug.

"Who's bleeding? Shiro I thought you could take a beating," Lance said, throwing fake punches into the air. "Champion and all-"

"Pidge is bleeding," Shiro said, stopping Lances fists in his hands.

Pidge rolled her eyes. "I'm going to go change."

That's when Lance noticed the red too.

"Oh," he mumbled. He looked at Shiro, a sly grin forming on his face. "Really? I was the last one to figure out she's a girl but really?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Shiro exclaimed. "Our fellow paladin was hurt. That's the only issue. She was paired with me. I should have helped more."

Lance snorted. "Believe me you can't really do much about this."

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Lance was acting surprisingly nice to her.

That's not to say he wasn't nice. But he was just being extra…careful.

"So, I'm going to take a trip to the space mall," Lance said, crouching down beside the green paladin, blocking her view of her laptop. Now normally he wouldn't expect Pidge to be interested in coming shopping with him but he had an inkling this time would be different.

Pidge adjusted her glasses. "When're you going?"

"Now, want to come?" Lance said, standing and stretching. "I'm going to go weasel some money out of Coran first."

Pidge looked hesitant so Lance decided to draw her in with curiosity. "Hey, but if you do come I got rules this time. What I'm going to buy is top secret so I'll give you half of whatever money Coran gives me and you go buy whatever you want while I do my super secretive shopping, okay?"

There. Lance was proud of himself. Now she could go buy whatever things she needed for her monthly situation without feeling shy about it.

"You're so weird," Pidge said, straightening up. "I'll meet you in five."

When they arrived at the mall (in normal clothing and not as pirates) Lance handed Pidge a couple of space bills. "Hey, I lived with a lot of girls-"

"And yet every time you see one you start drooling," Pidge said, the corner of her lip turned upwards.

Lance shoved her shoulder. "I'm trying to have a moment with you!"

"You ruined your moment with Keith," Pidge said, eyes twinkling. "Guess it's my turn."

Lance crossed her arms and grumbled under his breath before feeling a small hand on his sleeve. "Thank you," Pidge said, smiling sincerely.

"Yeah, whatever!" Lance called out as he watched her disappear into the crowd. "Not like I care what a little half pint like you gets yourself into!"

The next day Pidge stuck the sticky part of a new pad onto Lances back and he walked around the castleship and no one said a thing.

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Authors Note:

I plan on adding a lot more situations Pidge can encounter. If you have any ideas feel free to share!

-Magma

P.S. Shout out to my friend who read & reviewed using my laptop smh lmao ily