Pidge is flying through a forest, but she can't seem to focus on anything, she's going too fast. It takes her a moment to realize she's not just in the Green Lion, she is the Lion. This is a dream.

Smoke is drifting in the wind and she knows the world is burning behind her. Someone is crying. She thinks it's a woman, but the sound is distorted. It reminds her of when her dad called home from a mission, the way she and her mom would sit at the table, each holding their own handset, and as her mom talked she could hear her voice coming through the phone and echoing right beside her.

You felt it too, didn't you? the woman says sorrowfully, voice reverberating just like that. He's lost his heart. He once loved the universe as much as we did, but now it's like he sees it as something to control, to burn. What happened to him?

The Green Lion flies faster, away from the smoke and the wind howling through the trees–

Pidge can hear a rustling sound. It's the same one she's come to associate with her dreams, but she's awake enough to realize it's coming from somewhere else. She keeps her eyes shut tight and holds her breath, listening closely until she hears the noise again.

She opens her eyes, sits up straight in her bunk.

"I know you're there," she says out loud. "I can hear you."

She waits until she sees something moving in the corner of her room. The space caterpillars poke their heads out, staring at her. The marks on their faces are glowing.

Pidge motions them closer. "Come on, little guys. Let's talk."

Slowly, they amble over to her bunk, rustling like leaves as they cautiously climb over the mess on her floor. They've never been as comfortable moving around her room as they were in the trash nebula, but they seem to like having familiar things to latch onto. They move easily onto her junk sculpture of Hunk, and she reaches out to pick them up.

"You're the reason I've been having all these weird dreams, aren't you?" she asks them. "You're doing something to connect to my Lion. How does that work?"

The caterpillars chirrup at her. She can feel Green's presence in the back of her mind as she holds them. For a moment, she sees something connecting her to the caterpillars that looks a little like the vines she'd once seen from the Lion's perspective. She can almost smell smoke, like in her dream.

The marks on their faces flicker. The vines fade away. None of it makes sense. But Pidge knows someone who specializes in knowing things that don't make sense.

"I think there's someone you should meet," she says.

"Just look at you!" Coran puts out his hands, letting the caterpillars crawl onto his palms. He looks happier than Pidge has seen him in a long time.

"I guess you know what these are?" Pidge ventures.

"Of course I do," Coran says, shifting so both fit on one hand. He gently scratches the blue caterpillar's back. It makes a noise that sounds suspiciously like a purr. "They're Altean. Well, they originated on Altea, but most of them ended up off-planet once they discovered the space port. They had a very bad habit of hitchhiking. But how did they get here?"

Pidge scratches the back of her head, feeling sheepish. "Actually, they've been living in my room for a while. I found them when we were all split up by that wormhole."

The green caterpillar chirps to confirm. She can see the gears whirring in Coran's mind as he starts to wonder what else she's hidden in her room since then, which means there's a good chance he might start nosing around again.

"Anyway," Pidge says hurriedly. "I know this sounds crazy, but I think they have some kind of connection with the Green Lion." She tells him a little about her dreams, about seeing things from the Green Lion's perspective, about how the caterpillars are always close by when she wakes up. "I think they've made our bond stronger. I can feel it even when I'm not actually in my Lion."

"I don't think that's crazy at all. They could be affecting your bond," Coran says thoughtfully. "The ancients used to believe these little ones were good luck because they seemed to inspire creativity. Later on, alchemists proposed they weren't inspiring so much as expanding the innate connection to quintessence that exists in all living beings. Those theories were never proven, of course, but it does set a precedent for the idea."

Pidge considers it. "So they could be acting like an amplifier for quintessence? Do you think they could connect to the other Lions, too?"

"I'm not sure, but we could find out. What do you think?" he says, directly addressing the space caterpillars. "D'you mind if we study you guys a bit?"

The space caterpillars stare up at them noncommittally. Their markings are glowing again.

"Beautiful sight in the evenings," Coran says wistfully, looking at them. "Used to see clusters of them out in the fields and forests, glowing just like that."

Pidge reaches out to let the green caterpillar crawl off of Coran's palm and onto her hand. "I guess that makes them more like fireflies than caterpillars. I've been calling them space caterpillars," she explains as it slowly inches up her arm.

"Caterpillars, eh?" Coran says, intrigued. "We called them-"

But Pidge doesn't get to find out what they're called. The sound of the door opening distracts him as Allura enters, clearly frazzled and already well into a sentence, "Coran, have you seen– sorry, Pidge, I– Oh!" She stops, staring at the caterpillars in wide-eyed surprise.

"Here, Princess," Pidge says, gently lifting the green caterpillar off of her sleeve. She puts it into Allura's hands, the blue one watching closely from its' perch with Coran. Allura seems to relax instantly. She looks happy.

The caterpillars both seem just as happy to see her, their markings glowing even brighter. When Allura pets the green one, the marks on her own face flicker. She doesn't seem to notice. Pidge wonders if it has something to do with quintessence, or the Lions–

Pidge feels a nudge in the back of her mind, like a subtle reminder that there was something she was supposed to do.

"Oh, yeah," she says, feeling a little silly as she looks down at the caterpillars, "I didn't actually introduce you, did I? This is Coran, and that's Princess Allura. I've told you a lot about them."

They stare up at her. Pidge realizes the problem.

"They need names," she says, looking up at the Alteans. "I never got around to naming them, which, in hindsight, is weird for me because I usually name everything. And I think they'd like you two to do the honors."

"You'd really let us?" Allura says, a pleased smile crossing her face.

"We'd love to," Coran says.

Coran names the blue one Alfor Junior, "If you don't mind, Princess." Allura nods her approval, declaring it perfect. She names the green one Galadae. Coran's chin wobbles, and for one terrifying moment Pidge thinks he might cry, but he doesn't.

The newly-dubbed Alfor Junior and Galadae chirp happily. In tandem, they jump off Allura and Coran's hands and land on Pidge, crawling up her sleeves to perch on her shoulders. She gets a sense they want to go back to her room.

"Already?" she says, surprised. "But you haven't even seen the rest of the Castle or met the others! And I bet Green would like to see you again, too…"

Alfor Junior opens its mouth and lets out a tiny, soundless yawn.

"Looks like they're all tuckered out! Better let them rest," Coran says gently. He tugs on his mustache. "Take good care of them, Number Five."

"Come visit anytime, little ones," Allura tells them, leaning down to the caterpillars' eye level, gently patting each of them on the head. They chirrup sleepily.

"They will," Pidge promises for them.

Alfor and Galadae fall asleep on her pillow, too exhausted to move. It's strange to think of them with actual names. She has a lot of questions for them, but they'll have to wait.

In the meantime, Pidge decides to clean her room. And she tries, she really does, but she gets distracted by the small box of junk the mice have been bringing her. She ends up sorting it all out, sitting cross-legged on a free patch of floor as she pulls out bits and pieces of wiring, scraps of fabric, springs, broken vent covers and chipped glass, laying the pieces down side by side until a pattern emerges that catches her off guard. Suddenly, the mice's actions make a lot more sense.

"Well, if that's what you wanted, you could have just said so," she grumbles, even though the mice aren't there to hear her.

She starts putting the pieces together, sorting them by color.

Open your eyes, the Lion says.

Pidge is standing in the Green Lion's cockpit. Looking out, she can see a woman on the ground, standing alone, small and fragile from the Lion's perspective. The armor she's wearing looks familiar.

"That's your Paladin," Pidge realizes. "The original Green Paladin. I heard her talking to you in my dream!"

Not a dream, the Green Lion tells her, low growl rumbling all around her. And neither is this. These are my memories.

Pidge watches the Green Paladin approach, resting a gloved hand on the Lion's metal claws. "Whatever that thing is, he isn't Zarkon," she says, head bowed. Her voice sounds like it's coming through speakers. "He thinks he's gained power, but he doesn't understand that our emotions give us strength. Logic may guide us, but without a capacity to feel, to love, we can never truly be strong. Never forget this, my friend."

The Green Lion roars, the sound muted by time and distance. It feels like saying goodbye.

"Is this the last time you saw each other?" Pidge asks quietly.

The Lion doesn't answer that. She taught me about love, it says instead. She said love is what makes us grow. She believed love is the strongest force in the universe.

Pidge frowns. She trusts the Green Lion, but that makes no sense. Love is more like a concept than a force. It's intangible, immeasurable. You can't run things on love the way you can quintessence.

"Even stronger than Voltron?" she asks.

A wave of amusement washes over Pidge as she realizes the Lion is laughing. The sound echoes like distant thunder.

What do you think holds Voltron together, Paladin?

There are eight mice outside of Allura's bedroom door. Four of them are chattering excitedly at her. The other four are made of scraps and metal pieces, strange but recognizable caricatures of the mice. It takes Allura a moment to process what the mice are saying.

"Pidge made these?" she repeats, surprised. She sits on the floor to hear them better.

The mice nod. They tell her how Pidge had assembled versions of all her friends when she was lost. Ever since they noticed the sculptures in her room, the mice had been asking Pidge to make ones of them as well, bringing her whatever supplies they could find to use. Now she finally had. The mice thought maybe Allura would like them just as much as they did, so they had carried everything up here to show her.

"I'm glad you did," Allura says, admiring the rounded piece that was clearly supposed to be Platt. "These are lovely. That reminds me, I've been meaning to thank you for looking after Pidge."

The mice squeak reproachfully. She holds up her hands, pacifying. "I know, I know. She's your friend too, and you'd have kept an eye on her even if I hadn't asked you to."

The mice agree. Besides, the sculptures are proof that Pidge knows that they're her friends.

"I've noticed she and Lance seem to be getting along better these days," Allura says conspiratorially. "That's an improvement, isn't it? It was getting to be a bit too tense, don't you think?"

Plachu nods, but Chuchule studies her, looking unusually serious. She squeaks, and the mice all jump onto Allura's lap and arms, running up to nuzzle her face in their approximation of a hug.

"Honestly, I'm fine," she tells them, laughing as their whiskers tickle her. "Really, you don't have to worry about me. I just want everyone to be happy."

All eight mice find a spot in her room.

Pidge goes to see Kaltenecker. She hasn't visited in a long time, and Kaltenecker is clearly not happy about it. The cow ignores her at first, preferring to focus on eating. Slowly.

"I'm sorry, okay?" Pidge says. "I know it's been a while. I was busy. It wasn't personal."

Kaltenecker chews, and chews, and chews. Finally, she swallows, looking reproachfully at Pidge out of the side of her eye. Pidge takes this as a good sign and moves in closer. She strokes Kaltenecker's neck. "I know, I know. You get lonely, too. Living here is better than being stuck in that store, though, isn't it?"

The cow moos balefully. Pidge sighs. "I know that guy let you fly a hoverboard, but you clearly didn't know how to control it," she says. "That's why we don't let you on it anymore. You nearly wiped out the holo screen last time. Coran's still kind of mad."

Kaltenecker helps herself to more grass. She chews, ignoring Pidge again, her tail swishing in annoyance.

Pidge rolls her eyes. "And you saw more people at the mall, yes. But we're cooler people, aren't we? Don't you like us better?"

Slowly, the cow turns her head to stare at her, then leans in and deliberately licks Pidge's face. Her tongue is rough and scratchy and there are blades of grass mixed in with Kaltenecker's spit.

"Eww!" Pidge complains, using her sleeve to wipe off most of the spit from her face, but her glasses are still completely covered. Trying to clean them just makes things worse.

"You're literally the only person she ever does that to, you know," Lance says, amused. He's standing in the open doorway. "She must think you taste good."

Kaltenecker moos, sounding much happier to see him than she was to see Pidge. He walks in and begins scratching the cow behind the ears. "Hi there! Who's a pretty girl? You are."

"I already told her no," Pidge says, giving up on her glasses. She shoves them in her pocket.

"Oh." Lance frowns, looking down at the cow. He waggles a finger in front of her nose. "Ah-ah, you heard Pidge. No hoverboard for you. Yet."

Kaltenecker's tail swishes again, clearly annoyed. She licks Lance's hand, too, drooling a little for good measure.

"Aww, come on!" he whines, trying to shake the spit off.

Pidge laughs. "You must taste good too," she says, smirking.

Kaltenecker nudges her, having resigned herself to being grounded but still wanting attention. Pidge throws her arms around the cow's neck. "It's okay. You're kind of gross, but we're still friends," she says, hugging her. Kaltenecker moos loudly in agreement.

Lance finally resorts to wiping his hand on his shirt. "What was it you were telling Kaltenecker earlier? That we're cooler than someone?"

Pidge lets go of the cow. "How long were you standing there, anyway?" she demands suspiciously.

Lance shrugs. Kaltenecker impatiently taps her foot on the ground, and he pets her too, just to show he isn't mad at her. "Not that long. I just didn't want to interrupt your conversation."

He looks at her again, squinting. "… huh. You look really different without your glasses."

"You've seen me without them before, you know," Pidge says dryly. "I never wear glasses with my armor."

"Yeah, but then you've got a helmet on, and stuff," Lance says, waving his hands around in a vague imitation of a visor covering his eyes. "And there's usually a mission or fight or whatever going on so I never really noticed?"

"What, that I have eyes?" Pidge says, batting them for extra effect.

"Forget it," Lance grumbles, busying himself with taking care of Kaltenecker. Pidge pets the cow one more time before stepping aside to give him more room to work. She hops up onto the fence, settling down to watch him.

Lance catches her staring. "Something wrong?"

She shakes her head. Nothing's wrong with her. Lance is still too tall and too skinny and they've been in space long enough that his hair is starting to curl where it hits his collar. The other day he actually laughed at one of Hunk's nerdy puns. She's mostly over being tongue-tied and sweaty, but Pidge is pretty sure she still has a crush on him, and she's decided she's okay with it. It actually makes life kind of interesting.

"I'm just happy to be with you," she says.

"Oh," Lance says, startled, the tips of his ears turning pink. "That's cool."

"It is," Pidge says. She grins at him. "We're cool."

Waiting on love ain't so easy to do.
- Jack Johnson

author's notes: This story was originally posted on AO3. It's complete! But there will (eventually) be a sequel. Thanks for reading! :)