A/N: Originally published by me on Wattpad. This fanfic will be pretty much me inserting kidge into the show. Early on I'll just be changing and adding some scenes but later on, If I write that long, there will probably be major changes from the show. Anywayyyyy enjoy

This chapter takes place in between season 1 episode 1 and season 1 episode 2. If you need a refresher of S1 E1 and can't watch the episode, you can read over what happened at vld./wiki/The_Rise_of_Voltron

It had been close to 48 hours since the new Paladins of Voltron had slept. After waking up at 6a and training at the Galaxy Garrison all day only to unintentionally flaunt their miserable failures in front of the other space cadets, Pidge, Hunk, and Lance witnessed the pilot of the Kerberos mission, Shiro who'd disappeared just over a year ago, fall down to Earth in a Galra ship he'd stolen. They then took off with the mysterious Keith, an ex-cadet and now current fellow Paladin, and stayed up all night attempting to learn what they could about the alleged "pilot errors" that led to the failure of his as well as Pidge's dad, Sam, and brother, Matt Holt's mission. After not attaining much information from Shiro who was struggling to remember what had happened to him, they still were led to the blue lion in a nearby cave using information Keith and Pidge had gathered over the past year of searching for their loved ones and Lance was able to pilot it, unknowingly sharing a bond with the alien warship. This same alien warship that allowed Lance to pilot spoke to him and fed him ideas that would lead them to the Castle of Lions, a spaceship and castle on a different corner of the universe which held a sleeping ancient Altean princess and her royal advisor, Coran who once awoke, were able to fit together the rest of the puzzle pieces about Voltron and its role in defeating Zarkon, the Galran emperor who'd been massacring and enslaving species across all galaxies. It was after this that the group of five pilots, who'd by chance ended up on a strange planet in a strange galaxy with some strange aliens, were chosen to be the defenders of the universe and become the Paladins of Voltron, the one thing capable of taking down Zarkon and his Galra empire. And all this had taken place in a time span of under two Earth days making it impossible to find a chance to sleep until now in a castle that had kept a princess and royal advisor asleep for 10,000 years. For the first time since forming Voltron and destroying a Galra ship, everyone but two of the Paladins had gone to sleep. Keith and Pidge who even while running on no sleep, were lying wide awake in their beds staring up at the ceiling feeling lost and alone.

Everyone on the ship was separated from their families. Allura and Coran had lost their entire species but were able to get some rest knowing there was hope in saving the universe with the new paladins, Shiro had lost his crew but was ultimately too comfortable being in a safe bed for the first time in a year to be kept up even by his own nightmares of the torture he'd suffered, and Hunk and Lance while both separated from their families by hundreds of millions of light-years, were able to find peace and sleep in knowing they had families to go home to. But it had been Keith and Pidge who'd been separated by their loved ones over a year ago and had spent every waking moment searching for them and thinking about nothing but them. It wasn't even enough to be looking only when they were naturally awake. No, they kept themselves up into the late hours of the night and at times into the wee hours of the morning even when sleep called their names and offered a few hours of escape and peace. Their sole purpose had been to find out what really happened on the Kerberos mission and get their families back and even though Keith had found Shiro, the first person he felt he could call family since his dad's death, it was out of habit that he was still awake. The habit of being alert and ready to protect those he cared about or jump into action at any moment combined with having the new burden of being one of the five saviors of the universe was what was keeping him awake. As for Pidge, she was also in the same habit and could not think about anything except finding her brother and dad.

After trying and failing for over an hour to fall asleep, Pidge decided to get up and take a walk throughout the castle. She figured if she wasn't gonna sleep she may as well spend some time getting to know the castle she'd be staying in until fuck knows when. So wandering out of bed wearing just an oversized white t-shirt with what looked to be some sort of logo written in Altean plastered across the front that she had found earlier while raiding the drawers of her room, she disregarded her glasses and pants believing she'd be the only one who could possibly still be awake after the excitement of the last two days and that there'd be no one to dress like a boy for. But she was wrong of course as another lonely soul was awake on the ship as well and was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of soft footsteps on the metal floor outside his room. The need to stay alert and be ready for action that was keeping him awake is also what drove the instinct to grab the blade he'd been given by his mother from his nightstand and be prepared to battle whatever intruder may be lurking in the halls. Jumping up out of bed, he bolted to the door and had to refrain from opening it as fast as possible as well because he didn't want to make any noise that could alert whoever was in the hallway of his awareness of them. He wanted the advantage of surprise. So slipping out as quietly as possible, he tiptoed in the direction he'd heard the footsteps going and caught a glimpse of a figure under the low light turning a corner leading out of the hallway and into the lounge area. Proceeding with caution, he followed and leaned against the wall next to the corner before peaking his head around and seeing who the person he'd heard was. Pidge. The smallest paladin, and the other arm of Voltron, was prancing around with her messy short hair in nothing but an oversized shirt completely unaware that he was watching her. Keith then decided to step out in the open instead of hiding behind the wall and stood silent waiting for her to turn around and notice him. And sure enough, within a few seconds, she did and she let out a small yelp in surprise while instinctively grabbing the bottom of her shirt and trying to pull it down in a last attempt to hide her true sex. But it wouldn't have made any difference. The simple fact that she was comfortable walking around in only a long shirt was telling enough and even then, Pidge quickly remembered that he already knew.

"You know if you want people to think you're a guy you really shouldn't go around wearing pajamas like that Katie." He said smugly drawing out her name a bit while leaning himself against the wall. "Bet you're grateful it was just me who was awake huh?" He hid a smirk while staring down at Pidge's adorable annoyed face from across the room. They both remembered the day they'd met several months earlier after the news of the failed Kerberos mission but before Pidge had enrolled in the Galaxy Garrison.

"Put her in the cell with the boy and we'll call her mom." Commander Iverson demanded of a guard that held her back from attacking him. She'd just been banned from ever stepping foot at the Garrison again after hacking into their computers and reading classified information relating to her father and brother's disappearance.

"You really think me or my mother will let you get away with this?!" She shouts back angrily while being forced away by the guard holding her. Katie continued to kick and scream trying to escape the grip the guard had on her the entire time she was being carried and once being set down in a cell away from the offices and cadets, she banged on the door that was slammed in her face and screamed once more. "You'll never get away with this, I'll never stop!" The tears began welling up but she quickly made herself hold them back when she heard a voice.

"What'd they lock you up for?" Katie jerked around and saw a boy with jet black hair and a red jacket sitting on a bench in the corner.

"Who's asking?" She spat back looking him up and down. She didn't mean to come off so rude but he had found himself in the line of her raging fire.

"Keith." He stated bluntly showing no emotion.

"That doesn't tell me anything about who you are." Katie responded annoyed that a stranger was asking her questions without giving any information in return.

"I'm here because I snuck into the mission's communications building and held a man at knifepoint until he brought me to the mission transcript logs room. There was someone in there when we arrived and I was caught. I've now been expelled and they decided to put me in here until they figure out what to do with me." He explained and Katie caught the slightest hint of a curve in the corner of his lips almost as if he was trying desperately to hide his pride in what he'd done. "Now I've told you why I'm here so I'll ask you again. Why are you here?" His stare bore into her eyes as he asked in his intimidating tone while getting up from his spot on the bench and approaching her. But she wasn't phased one bit by his lack of remorse for holding a man at knifepoint as had she not been held back, she most likely would've attempted to gouge out Iverson's eyes just moments ago.

"There are much more effective ways of attaining that information." Katie crossed her arms and said matter-of-factly. "I'm here because I broke into Iverson's office and was hacking into the transcript logs as well as classified information about the mission itself." She announced not holding back her own expression of pride one bit.

"And which mission would that be?" Keith asked taking another step now making him only a few feet away. She didn't respond debating internally how much she was willing to divulge.

"Kerberos?" Keith asked quietly and after a moment she responded with a shy nod. "Who are you exactly?" He pushed and she again questioned how much she was willing to tell him.

"Katie." She stated finally in the same blunt tone Keith had used when telling her his name causing him to let out a small chuckle.

"Well, Katie." He dragged out her name teasingly. "What do you say we get ourselves outta here?"

"Now how exactly can we do that? They took away all my devices so I can't hack into the system and unlock this cell?" She explained and in response Keith pulled out a blade from inside his jacket making Katie's eyes go wide in shock that he'd managed to sneak the same weapon he'd been caught using inside the cell.

"While I have great respect for your technological abilities and admit they would come in handy in helping us get out more discreetly." He began while looking over his blade and running his fingers along its smooth surface just as he had countless times over the course of his life. "This is one of the times when the answer is violence." As he looked back up to Katie's eyes, his voice was quiet but seemingly excited about whatever plan he was conjuring in his mind.

"And what exactly did you have in mind?" She questioned his intentions in a hushed, excited, and malevolent tone that mimicked his while pushing away the thought that she enjoyed the bit of thrill she felt thinking about inflicting any pain against the place that had covered up details of her father and brother's disappearance.

"This." He replied and turned to go to the door. She followed and watched him slam his blade into a control pad causing the doors to glitch open. An alarm immediately started blaring as well as red flashing lights in the hallway. "See not the most discreet but still does the trick."

"I thought their tech was supposed to be bulletproof." Katie stated shocked at the ability of the blade to so easily cut through the controls before following Keith out of the cell and bolting down the hall. "Must be a strong blade."

"Yeah now c'mon and follow me. I know this place pretty well." He rushed her while turning a corner at the end of the hallway and into an empty office. The alarms continued to roar raucously as Keith locked the door behind them before running to the other side of the room and touching the wall as if looking for something.

"What are you doing?" Katie asked impatiently while glancing back at the door nervous that someone would burst in at any moment.

"Be patient!" He ordered and before Katie could protest she watched as he pushed in a small slot of what had seemed like a completely ordinary flat wall before sticking his hand and then whole arm inside. Reaching around inside, he grabbed a doorknob on the other side and twisted it unlocking the door that was a fake wall.

"Wha-?!" Katie couldn't believe what she was seeing and stood unable to move while staring at the opening wall and the strange boy she had met who'd somehow known about it.

"Come." He demanded as he grabbed her hand and pulled her through before closing the wall behind them. "We have to hurry." He asserted to her as he dragged her down a dark hallway.

"How did you know about this place?" She grilled while trying to pull her hand away from his but he wasn't going to let her tiny legs fall behind when they were trying to shake a tail. He gave no answer and turned down a few corners which eventually led them to a door with a keypad. "Gonna use your knife again?" Katie teased.

"Nope, I actually know the code for this one." He fires back smugly as he types in the code. The door slides open to reveal an aircraft hanger illuminated by large fluorescent lights and filled with dozens of fighter jets and high ranking commanders. Katie couldn't believe her eyes. She'd never heard about any of these crafts or even this hanger. It must be classified she thought and before she could gasp in disbelief over the number of secrets the Garrison was hiding or the fact that this random boy just a few years older than her, knew how to sneak in and had led her there, Keith again grabbed her hand and pulled her into a dark corner and placed his index finger over his lips to signal for her to be quiet. She had no problem complying as she knew if she was caught here, there would surely be punishment a thousand times worse than what she already had coming. And it seemed like a good idea to trust this boy anyway since he appeared to know much more about this place than herself despite having read classified documents on missions conducted by the Garrison.

Together, they snuck up a ladder remaining alert of every guard nearby and crawled towards a hovering motorcycle hidden in a corner behind one of the jets.

"We're taking this but the sound of the engine will alert people nearby of our presence so we'll have to hurry before they close the gate to trap us in if we wanna make it out of here." Keith informs her once they arrive at the vehicle. He climbs up onto the seat but instead of getting up to sit behind him, Katie approaches the front and examines the controls.

"I may be able to silence the vehicle by hacking into the engine controls so we can at least get up to the gate without being noticed. I've never messed with the controls on a hover motorcycle before but if the tech runs under the same programming as other Garrison tech I should be able to figure it out." She leans over and begins furiously pressing buttons leaving Keith to watch in awe.

"I'm impressed little one. But do hurry before a guard decides to walk by and spots us." Keith teases while watching her small fingers seemingly work magic on the panel of controls.

"Annnnnd done." She announces with an expression of pride. "That should do it."

"Good now climb up and hold on." He whispers in response nervously. He feels her sit behind him and her small arms tightly wrap around his waist. "Ready?" He asks but instead of giving her a chance to respond, he presses on the pedal with his foot and takes off. Keith turns sharply around a fighter jet and heads straight toward the gate as fast as he can without hitting anything.

"Hey stop!" A guard yells and Katie grips Keith's shirt tighter while glancing back.

"Uhh, Keith..." Katie says worrying because they'd now been spotted and guards everywhere were chasing after them.

"Don't worry." He responds just as they make it through the gate and now that they're out in the open, are able to pick up their speed. It's only a few moments later though that they hear bullets hitting the dirt next to them and Katie lets out a scream. "Shit." Keith curses under his breath and swerves to the side attempting to make them a harder target.

"Keith how much further?" She asks staring back at the guards trying to gun them down.

"I'm gonna need you to hold on and trust me." He shouts back over the gunfire.

"Whaaa-!" Katie cries out as Keith pivots the hover motorcycle 90 degrees to the side and they both struggle to hold on as they fly through a thin opening in a high wall that acted as a fence around the property. Once they're on the other side, Keith turns them back upright and they gain some cover from the bullets from the wall.

"Get ready to jump." Keith warns and only a few moments later, jumps off bringing Katie with him as she had still been holding on. They land on the ground hard and roll a few times in the dirt while the hover motorcycle continues on in the same direction. Katie groans as she pushes herself off the ground and gets back up before coughing out some dirt.

"Why the fuck did you do that?" She yells angrily at Keith as he forces himself back up too.

"They'll track the signal of the hover motorcycle and will follow that. It's best we got off and get a head start running away now." He explains spitting out the words a bit annoyed with her questions. She notices that he's clutching his side and wincing a bit while struggling to stand up completely.

"What's wrong?" She questions looking concerned at his face while helping him upright.

"Nothing I'm fine." He protests as she moves aside his jacket to examine where he'd been clutching. There was a rip in his shirt and a large cut on his side and in his jacket was the blade he'd showed off earlier.

"You really decided it was a good idea to jump off and roll around on the ground with a knife in your jacket?!" She exclaims looking back up to his eyes.

"There was no other choice, we had to get off their radar!" He snaps back at her as she goes to examine the cut again.

"Well it's not too deep but we definitely have to wrap you up. Know anywhere we can go?" Katie helps keep him up by wrapping his arm around her shoulder.

"I live close by. Only about a half-hour walk in that direction." He nods south and they begin walking. They didn't speak except for the occasional pained grunt from Keith and made sure to keep facing south so not to be blinded by the sunset to the west. It felt like the journey was taking closer to an hour by the time the small shack appeared in the distance probably because their speed was set at slowly limping and the sun had completely set leaving only the stars out once they were finally at the front door. Walking inside, Katie finally placed Keith down on the sofa and pulled her shirt off over her head disregarding it on the floor and leaving herself only in a sports bra.

"Uhhh what are you doing?" Keith questioned wincing as he tried to pull off his own jacket.

"We just walked for over an hour in the desert. I'm hot." She answered bluntly and uncaring while turning on a fan in the corner. She walked back to Keith on the sofa and sat down next to him before helping remove his jacket. "We're gonna have to take off your shirt and wrap you up. Do you have any bandages?" She asked and he pointed to the cabinets in response. Getting up once again, she grabbed some rubbing alcohol, cotton balls, gauze, gauze pads, and put some ice from the freezer in a bag before returning to the couch setting everything she'd brought on the coffee table in front of her. Next, she turned back to a dazed-looking Keith and made him sit back up.

"Lift your arms up." Katie commands while grabbing the hem of his shirt. He winces in response to his arms being raised but she makes sure to be gentle when lifting the shirt up and over. Once off, they become aware of how close their faces are and find themselves staring into each other's eyes.

"So.. you gonna fix me up now?" Keith teases quietly and Katie pulls her eyes away and reaches for the rubbing alcohol and cotton balls. Getting one thoroughly soaked with the liquid, she gently dabs it on the wound wincing as he lets out an excruciating roar from the pain.

"I know, I know." She tries to calm him and squeezes his hand in hers as she continues. Finally, she finishes with the rubbing alcohol and sits him up straight so she can begin wrapping him up. "Ya know, I'm starting to doubt you are, well were, just some random cadet." Katie teases and glances up to look at him her eyebrow arched in a questioning manner.

"Fine." He caves and lets out a sigh while she continues wrapping the gauze around his torso. "Takashi Shirogane, the senior pilot of the Kerberos mission, was- is my best friend, like a brother to me. He got me into the Garrison and always believed in me despite my 'behavioral issues'." Keith ends on a chuckle and avoids looking her in the eyes, feeling shy talking about himself in such a vulnerable way. She stops wrapping for a moment to look at him and contemplate her next words.

"I'm Katie Holt. Daughter of Senior Science Officer Samuel Holt and Sister of Junior Science Officer Matt Holt of the Kerberos expedition." She finally declares nervously observing his expression and searching for a reaction.

"Looks like we're both being royally fucked over by the Garrison." He jokes after a moment and she smiles before returning to wrapping up his bandage.

"That should do it." She announces after a minute and she lays back against the couch.

"What now?" He whispers suddenly feeling the exhaustion and sleepiness crash over him like a wave all at once.

"I'll have to find a way to get home. Like I said earlier, Garrison confiscated my devices so I don't really have a way to contact my mom and I don't have a vehicle to get home in." She stares up at the ceiling thinking over her options.

"You can borrow my hover motorcycle. It's beaten up but it'll get you where you need to go and then you can just send it back on autopilot." He suggests turning to look at her and she lets her face fall to the side to face him.

"I appreciate that, thank you. And thank you for getting me out today." She says gratefully and his lips curve into a small smile.

"No problem." He replies and suddenly a heavy silence fills the air between them. It wasn't awkward but it felt despairing. Looking at each other, both of them lost and searching for their loved ones all alone was like staring at a reflection in a mirror and seeing this reflection, they both could see how small and insignificant they were and how unlikely it was they'd ever find the answers they were searching for. It was to push away this silence that Katie finally spoke.

"I think I'm gonna have to find a way to search in the Garrison again but this time without them knowing who I am." She states.

"How exactly?" He questions.

"I don't know maybe I'll dress up as a boy or something."

As the pair are pulled from their thoughts, they found themselves back in the lounge of the Castle of Lions still staring at each other from across the room. Neither of them could decide if the situation they had found themselves in now was better or worse than that from when they met. Back then, while things were much simpler, they were alone with little hope of finding their families. But now Keith had found Shiro even if he was broken while Pidge was still searching for Matt and her dad. And while these circumstances were still quite shit, neither of them felt as alone. They did, however, feel the weight of their new responsibility as protectors of the entire universe and while the Paladins were in this together, they felt too small for such an occupation and felt so insignificant when separated by millions of light-years from everything they ever knew.

"What are you doing up?" Keith finally asks breaking their moment of silence.

"Couldn't sleep." She admits looking away from his gaze shyly wanting to avoid any discussion of her lack of sleep and the reasons behind it.

"Me neither." He replies feeling just as vulnerable confessing.

"Do you wanna watch a movie with me?" Pidge asks a bit uncomfortably. She didn't know what else to say but she figured neither of them would be able to sleep anytime soon.

"How?" He responds confused. He wondered if she'd momentarily forgotten they weren't on Earth and there were no televisions or on-demand movies.

"I got my holo computer and while we obviously can't get any wifi out here, I have a bunch of movies downloaded on it." She explains and she follows Keith to the couch before taking a seat at his side and pulling out her device. "This one ok?" She asks pointing to one of the films she had saved and he nods back in response.

"Looks like you got your tech back." Keith jokes and Pidge chortles in response to the memory of that day again before they relaxed back on the couch to watch the movie. A few moments into it though, she got a sudden urge to explain her new alias to Keith even though he knew very well why she'd done it.

"When I said that I'd dress up as a boy, I was actually joking." Pidge began quietly while refusing to remove her eyes from the screen. "But within a few weeks, I'd gotten so desperate that when the new enrollment period came around, it seemed like as good an idea as any. And then it worked and I was able to continue gathering intel and improve my skills in developing technology to try and make contact with Matt and my dad." She recounted and while Keith didn't provide any verbal response, he spent the rest of the movie staring at the small lonely girl next to him. She didn't mind not getting any reaction out of him she mainly just felt the need to get it off her chest. She felt she had to express the unbearable helplessness and forlornness that had driven her to such an extreme. And with that off her chest and next to someone who at least partially understood what she was feeling, she began to drift off to sleep not long after the movie started. Keith didn't wake her or move away as her head fell to his shoulder. He instead stared at her petite body and short messy curls, captivated by her strength and will to fight in spite of the pain. It reminded him of himself except he had long ago forced himself to numb his pain while she had been strong enough to continue to allow herself to feel emotions. No wonder she couldn't sleep until now. He thought as he gently twirled one of her curls in his fingers.

By the time the movie was over, Keith had finally begun feeling sleepy as well and decided to head off to bed. He would've left Pidge there on the sofa but she was just in a shirt and he knew that if anyone else came out, they'd see her choice of pajamas and know she was a girl. While he didn't think it really mattered at this point as there was no one here she needed to hide her true identity from, he understood it wasn't his decision to reveal such a secret so instead of leaving her to rest on the couch, he carefully lifted her elfin body and carried her to her room before softly laying her in bed. After finally taking his leave of her allowing her to sleep peacefully, he returned to his own room to do the same.

In the morning, finding herself back in bed, Pidge pondered if last night had all been a dream.

I was drunk on NYE when I had the idea to write this so it may be a bit shit but it was pretty fun to write. Lol I like how instead of updating my The Deep fanfic (available on Wattpad) for the first time in like two years I just started a whole new one for a totally different fandom. Lol my bad

~Whitney

Originally published on Wattpad: 12:15a January 4th, 2020

Published here: 7:30p April 30th, 2020