Love.

Romance wasn't a foreign thing to the small green paladin. In fact, Pidge had experienced it numerous times. She had crushes on a couple of guys and a few on women in the past before she arrived at where she was today. All of those crushes she had on them had only one thing in common.

They all rejected her, each and every single one of them.

Rejection wasn't something that bothered Pidge in the sense where she felt upset when they didn't feel the same way, not at all. It did affect her, though, as whenever she fell in love with someone she never felt the need to confess as she already knew the answer because of the previous times she fell. Love was a thing that she always thought, 'why bother', as the outcome seemed to be the same every time.

It was no different this time around. She eyed Lance from across the room, but she didn't make it seem so obvious she was staring at him. For a while she had a crush on him, but all she could think of was 'he won't feel the same way towards you', 'what's the point of falling for someone who you know won't feel the same as well', so on and so forth. Those thoughts ran through her mind every day, even if it was only for a few seconds out of her time.

She tried to push the thoughts to the back of her mind to keep focused. She averted her vision from him to in front of her. The only sound Pidge was able to hear was a faint beating sound, which she soon realized it was her heartbeat, and her near-silent breathing. She didn't notice it was that quiet in the room. She pushed her glasses up her nose bridge, as it bugged her on how it was close to the bottom.

Pidge decided to get up and leave the room. She felt like she had to be away from everybody else and have some time of her own. She went into her bedroom and carefully walked to her bed. She laid down, took her device out, and decided to look at pictures of Lance, whether she was in the photo with him or not. With each picture, she stared at his face.

His dark blue eyes captivated her, almost like if looking at his eyes could put her or anyone else under a spell if she stared long enough. While so small, it was one thing about him that she loved appearance-wise, and she could look into them all day long if she wanted to. Lance was a handsome person overall, probably one of the most gorgeous in the world in her eyes. As much as she wanted him, she was convinced that he wasn't going to like her like that, just as a best friend.

She sighed as she wondered one thing. Why did love have to be such a blessing, but yet such a curse at the same time?

She swiped to another picture, this time one with her in it, and zoomed in some. The little one stared at it, getting lost in her thoughts as she looked at it. Pidge put her thumb right above where Lance's face was in the picture. She moved her thumb like if she was actually caressing his cheek.

At times, she wondered why she fell for Lance of all people. He was someone that she normally wouldn't fall for, but there was something about him she loved. She tried her best not to question it, as she knew there didn't need to be a reason why.

Hearing footsteps, her eyes widened and quickly made it look like she was doing something else. Pidge's heart started going faster, causing her to be a little shaky as the footsteps got louder and closer. There was no reason for her to shake or for her heart to beat as fast as it was, but it did and she shook. The doors opened and she moved her head to see who was there. It was Lance, who walked inside the room.

"Hey Pidge," Lance began, "you doing alright? You just left without saying anything and you seemed upset."

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just wanted some alone time." Pidge replied. "You didn't have to check up on me."

Lance put his hand on her shoulder. "Well, I just wanted to make sure you're okay. I care about you." He smiled.

Pidge smiled sadly back. Alarms went off and the lights suddenly turned off. The two looked at the light source and then at each other. They both went out the room and went to the others. As they entered the room, Keith and Hunk started running to their lions.

"What's going on?" Lance asked.

"We don't know," Allura ran by them, "all we know is that we're getting hit."

She continued running to the blue lion. Lance and Pidge went to their lions as well, getting in and flying straight out. Everyone looked everywhere to see where the hits were coming from, but there was nothing in sight. Pidge tried her best, but once again she couldn't see anything that could be producing those shots.

"Pidge, look out!"

She turned around and the last thing she could see was white light.

"Pidge?" That's what she heard. "Pidge, are you okay?"

She opened her eyes, and the very first thing she saw was Lance right in front of her. They were both floating in zero gravity. The lion didn't appear to be working, so if she tried she wouldn't be able to do anything. It looked like whatever hit her caused the lion to not be responsive. His arms went around her body enough and he held her close to his body.

"I'm... I'm okay, Lance." Pidge replied. "What hit us?"

"We don't know. It seems like it's coming out of nowhere."

"Weird..." Her eyes widened and she looked at Lance. "Wait, what are you doing out of your lion? You gotta get back to red! Where is everyone?"

"You weren't responding, so I had to make sure you were alright. We got separated from the others, so it's just us."

"Of course..." She mumbled annoyed to herself. "You can let go of me now, by the way."

Lance let her go and she was floating away from him. She tried to sit down onto the seat, but she stayed floating above it. Pidge tried to reactivate the artificial gravity so the two wouldn't be floating any longer. She successfully turned it back on, causing Lance to fall to the floor face first. He groaned as he got up.

"You okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine."

Lance got out of the green lion and went back to his own. Pidge tried to move her lion, but the lion wasn't responding at all. Because of that, she groaned in frustration. It looked like she was gonna be stuck there for a while unless she went to Lance's lion. She moved her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.

She wondered if she should go to his lion, but she then decided against it as it would be better if she stayed. Even if Pidge wanted to stay in Lance's lion, she had to be there in case if the green lion started to work again. She rested her head on her knees and sadly sighed.

"Damn it..." She whispered very quietly to herself.

She closed her eyes and stayed there. She began thinking of what to do and, once the lion started to work again, how to find the others. What felt like several doboshes later, she felt the lion being moved. Pidge lifted her head up and saw Lance was carrying the green lion with the red lion. That seemed to solve their problem for the moment.

The green paladin laid her legs out. With that problem out of the way, it seemed like she could relax for now. As a song came into mind, she tapped her finger to what she could remember of the beat and started humming the lyrics. She closed her eyes again. She could hear Lance humming quietly with her, though seeming like he didn't know the lyrics since at times he was off while he hummed along.

Pidge couldn't help but smile hearing him hum along. That, though, soon turned from a happy smile to a sad one. How she sounded as she hummed changed along with her smile. Her eyes half opened, looking out into the dark, empty space in front of them.

"So uh," Lance started, "what are you humming?"

"Oh, just an old song I used to listen to a lot back on Earth, 'I Can't Make You Love Me'."

"Wait, really?" He asked in confusion. "I thought you'd listen to something that's more... Happier sounding, like dance-y music."

Pidge looked to her lower left as her eyebrows lowered. "...It's sorta personal."

"Do you... Wanna talk about it?" Lance said, sounding concerned.

Pidge only stayed silent, feeling unsure if she wanted to tell him or not. She crossed her arms as she was thinking about it. Nobody said anything for a whole dobosh.

"If you don't want to say then that's fine-"

"No, it's okay Lance." Pidge interrupted. She took a deep breath. "But... I do need to tell you something anyways, though it might be pointless..."

"What do you mean?"

"Well Lance..." She looked down to her feet. "To be quite honest, I've liked you more than a friend for a while now. But, I know you won't feel the same way, so I don't know why I'm even telling you this."

"Pidge, I-"

"I mean, it's fine, I'm not upset about that. I just hope that you're happy with whoever is lucky enough to be with you."

"Pidge, can you-"

"And I'm pretty sure you like Allura-"

"Katie Holt can you stop talking for one God damn second?" Lance snapped.

Pidge's eyes opened as wide as they could, looking at the tears she didn't even realize were there in the first place. Her mouth was slightly opened. She didn't even know what to say, or what to think. She didn't think Lance would say her real name when directly speaking to her whatsoever.

"I'm sorry, but let me speak, alright?" He said.

She choked down the tears that were coming down her face and quietly answered, whispering 'yeah' to him. She heard Lance sigh of relief. She lifted her head up.

"I get how it is really, feeling rejected to where you think nobody is going to feel the same way. I've been there before." He told her. "Believe it or not, I'm not exactly the ladies man like I make it seem to be."

"Yeah, I figured that." Pidge sniffed and chuckled.

"But what I'm trying to say is that, yeah I don't get a lot of dates or get into any relationships, but I'm not giving up and thinking everybody is going to say no because of previous experiences. You say you're not really that upset by it, but you clearly sound like it."

"No really, I'm not."

"Pidge, it's okay to be upset about it."

"Seriously, I'm not. I just get weirdly emotional sometimes." She said, despite the fact he might not believe her on that.

"And another thing, Pidge. I used to like Allura, now I don't. I like somebody else now."

"Who would that be?"

"...How about you come over here? I'll tell you face to face." Lance told her, waiting a dobosh to answer.

"Okay?"

"Just trust me and get in Red."

This made Pidge's eyebrow rise up, making her question what he was planning. She got up from her seat. She didn't ask him though, she only did what he said to find out herself. She flew out of the green lion and went into the red lion. She walked to where Lance was at, whom of which was standing up behind the pilot seat.

She walked up to the taller, blue paladin. Pidge opened her mouth to speak, but she wasn't able to speak as Lance quickly took her helmet off and kissed her on the lips. Her eyes widened, trying to process everything that was going on. The green paladin felt frozen, like she couldn't move the moment his lips touched hers.

Once she was able to process it all, she made herself move, wrapped her arms around him, and kissed him back fiercely as she closed her eyes. He picked her up as they were kissing, making them at the same level unlike before. Pidge felt like she could be here for deca-phoebs kissing him. She could feel joyful tears fall down her face, though it wasn't as many tears as before.

Unfortunately for her, it didn't last as long as she wanted it to, as he pulled away from the kiss. He did, however, went in and kissed her tears off her face.

"Okay, you can stop that you goof, no need to actually do that!" She exclaimed with a smile, pushing him away.

Lance laughed, but then gave the smaller one a peck on the lips.

"Oh, and you're still an ugly kind of cute by the way."

"Damn it," Lance whispered to himself.

Pidge put her forehead up against his. "You're not just doing this because I'm your best friend, right?"

"Girlfriend you mean?" Lance corrected. "And no, I do actually like you."

Pidge closed her eyes and smiled. It actually felt pretty damn good for her. After all of the years of unrequited love, she hit the jackpot big time.

Though the sweet moment was then ruined tics later by the green lion roaring, scaring both Pidge and Lance.

"Oh come on, now she starts working?" Pidge groaned annoyed.

Lance chuckled, having a huge smile on his face. "I guess even Green knows you had to say something about it."

She playfully punched him in the arm. He laughed and let her go so she could go to the green lion. She got out of the red lion and went into her own.

"Okay, time to find the others." Pidge said.

Pidge got her lion off of Lance's, as it wasn't needed for her to be on him anymore. They both flew off and did their best to reunite with the others. They nearly got shot a few times by whatever hit them previously, but they managed to dodge it.

For what felt like a varga later, they got back with the others.

Pidge stretched and yawned. The day felt like it was way, way longer than it really was. Lance only had his hands in his pockets, looking at his love.

"Do you need me to carry you back to your room because you're so tired?" He joked.

"I can handle myself. Besides, I think a big man like you might get tired just carrying me alone." She joked back.

After a few tics, they started laughing. Lance opened the door to his room and went in first. Pidge followed right behind him, plopping onto his bed with her back facing the ceiling. Lance picked her up, laid down himself, and put Pidge right on top of him. He wrapped his arms around her and she held onto them, closing her eyes as she felt comfortable there.

"Y'know Pidge, I thought you'd at least had a few dates, or been in a relationship once."

"Nah, not at all. I'm surprised you didn't have much either, but then again I can see why they wouldn't want to go with someone as dumb as you."

"Hey!"

Pidge laughed. "Calm down, I'm only joking around. Mostly." She tried to look at him with that smirk she had on her face.

They both had a good laugh. "You're completely joking about that, right?" Lance asked.

"Maybe, maybe not. I'll let you decide." She said in a joking manner.

Lance rolled his eyes, obviously not liking that answer she gave.

She sighed happily. "I love you."

"I love you too, Pidge."

A/N: God this took way longer than I wanted to pfff- But it's done now, and I'm happy with that. I have a feeling I didn't do that great of a job this time around, but it might just be me thinking I didn't make this as angsty as I wanted to. Maybe I have, maybe I haven't, I just hope you guys enjoyed this.