Pidge had an uncanny ability to find each and every nook and cranny and hiding place on the Castle. There were more secret rooms on this ship than even Allura and Coran probably knew of, and Lance was sure Pidge had discovered them all.

So he really shouldn't have been surprised to find her tucked away in some little back room on the Castle, sitting in a windowsill, staring out at the stars.

He also shouldn't have been surprised that she was awake, despite the Castle's timekeeping system having hit the approximate equivalent to 3 AM a while ago.

And yet, the first thing out of his mouth was: "Shouldn't you be in bed?"

She jumped, nearly falling off of the window seat. "Lance!" she yelped. "What the—What are you doing here?"

"I should be asking you that," he retorted. "Do you even realize how late it is?"

"Time is an illusion."

"Pidge," Lance said. "Can I ask you something very important?"

"No."

"How much sleep did you get last night?"

"Ha!"

He sighed. "Allow me to rephrase the question. How much sleep have you gotten in the past week?"

"Total?" She shrugged, hazarding, "Maybe four hours?"

He bit back a groan, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Alright, you little gremlin," he told her, "you need to go to bed."

She leveled an even glare at him, raising one eyebrow. "And what about you?" she muttered. "Don't you need your nightly ten hours of beauty sleep, or whatever?"

That shut him up. He pursed his lips, narrowing his eyes at her.
They stared at each other in frosty silence before Pidge turned her attention back to the window she was sat up against. "Can't sleep, huh." It wasn't a question.

"It's one of those nights," he confessed.

"Believe it or not, I think I can relate."

He let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "Is it okay if I sit with you?"

Pidge shrugged listlessly, and Lance sat down beside her. Neither of them said anything, and they merely watched the starscape before them twinkle and flicker as they moved through space.

"It's so big," she finally whispered. "I've seen more in the past week alone than I ever dreamed I would. And we've barely skimmed the surface."

"Makes you think about our cosmic insignificance?"

"That's just the thing," she protested. "We're not. Cosmically insignificant, that is. God, Lance, we're so damn important. We've been out here, what, a couple months? And already we've changed so many lives. Everyone knows who we are." She paused, taking a shaky breath. "The entire universe is counting on us," she rasped. "And it's so big."

These thoughts were nothing new to Lance. They'd been running through his head for ages now. They're relying on you. Don't screw this up. You're not good enough. What have you done to help? They'd be better off without you. "I know exactly what you mean," he murmured.

"And we're so far from home," Pidge continued, her fists clenching at the hem of her shirt. "I left my mom all alone. She has absolutely no idea where I am, or what's going on, or if I'm even still alive—" Her breathing was starting to speed up as the words fell out of her. "What did Iverson tell them? I mean, we just disappeared. What did he tell people? Are we just another 'presumed to be dead' like he said for the Kerberos mission?" She wiped furiously at her eyes.

"I know," Lance said softly. "I think about that a lot too." What was his family doing now? His sisters, his brother, his cousins…. Had they held a memorial service for him? Rosa and Sophia were so young when he left; would they even still remember him?

"Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever find them." Her voice was barely audible, and Lance could see the tears welling up in her eyes. "Dad and Matt. I'm not going home without them, I can't."

"You won't have to," he promised. "Okay? Cuz we're going to find them. And we're gonna save the universe. And then we're all going to go home and finally have that parade."

Despite everything, Pidge chuckled. "I hope so," she replied. She took a deep breath, composing herself. "I'm sorry for just. Dumping all my problems on you."

"That's okay," he said. "S'what I'm here for. And it's not like it's anything I haven't really been thinking about myself."

"How do you always stay so—" She waved her hand vaguely, "—smiley?"

"The certified Lance method to dealing with your emotions," he replied. "Bottle it all up and never tell anyone till you reach the breaking point."

"You have the worst coping mechanisms."

"Don't I know it." They fell quiet again, comforted by each other's presence. "I always dreamed of coming up here," Lance said after a moment, breaking the silence. "Being a pilot and going to space and exploring new worlds was what I dreamed about for years. I wanted to be an astronaut since I was in elementary school, learning about that first trip to the moon all those years ago."

"Me too," Pidge mumbled. "Even earlier. Wanted to be just like my dad."

"And now that I'm actually out here," Lance continued, "it's a bit…overwhelming. I have to be honest, I wasn't expecting anything like this. I wasn't expecting robot lions, or magic castles, or alien wars. And I just…miss home."

"Is it weird that one of the things I miss most is the stars?" Pidge blurted. "I mean…here we are, floating through the depths of space, completely surrounded by stars." She ran a hand through her hair in frustration. "But…none of them are the ones I know. I look out the window and I don't see any of the constellations I grew up learning."

Lance's eyes were locked on the window in front of them. "I think I can relate to that."

"Even when the entire world was crumbling around me, the stars were still there. They never changed. They were so easy for me to look at, to remind myself that maybe I wasn't as lost I felt." She took a ragged breath, trying to steady herself. "Dad always said that if I got lost, to look for the North Star," she whispered. "If I could find the North Star, then I would know which way north was, and then I wouldn't be lost." She drew her legs up into the seat with her, hugging them to her chest. "But now…we're so far away from home, so lost, we can't even see the North Star."

Lance was quiet for a long while, and they watched the stars pass by in silence.

"When I was a kid," he started eventually, "I would stare at those stars all the time. I was never really any good and finding the constellations in the pictures and stuff. So I'd just make my own." He smiled softly. "They'd have the weirdest names. Apples And Bananas. A Clump Of Seaweed. The One That Looked Sort Of Like A Fish." On the other end of the window seat, Pidge started to giggle. "So while everyone else was pointing out, like, the Big Dipper or Orion or whatever," Lance continued. "I'd just see 'The Demon Bunny' and 'Maybe A Piano'." And Pidge barked out a laugh. Lance's smile turned bittersweet, reminiscing. "Probably kind of stupid, really."

"Well, you know, those constellations we learned about had to come from somewhere," Pidge told him. "Someone had to make them up."

"Yeah," he hummed. "I guess so." After a moment, he hopped a bit closer to her. "Hey. Why don't we do that?"

She seemed a bit taken aback. "What?"

"Make our own constellations," he repeated enthusiastically. "You said you missed the ones from around home, right? And that there weren't any like that out here? So let's make our own." He pointed out the window. "There, you see that big bright one? Kind of in the middle?"

"Yeah?"

"That can be the new North Star."

"But it's not north," she protested. "There is no north in space."

"Pidge, just go with me on this, okay?"

She was hesitant to reply. "Okay," she mumbled eventually.

"And see that cluster?"

"Um. Maybe? There are a lot of clusters."

"The one to the left of the North Star. And up a bit."

A pause. Then: "Yeah."

It went on. He'd point out another star, tracing an imaginary path between each one. "Kinda looks like a lion, doesn't it?"

Pidge tilted her head, narrowing her eyes at the stars. "It kinda does," she agreed. "You know, this would be a lot easier if we had a star map or something."

"Then go find one for us, genius."

She laughed. "Alright," she said. "C'mon, let's see what we can find on the bridge."

Lance couldn't make sense of the route Pidge lead him on to get back to the bridge. He couldn't keep track of all the turns they made, and he marveled at how Pidge could keep the castle mapped in her head so effortlessly. From the bridge, they were able to pull up the image of the outside of the castle on the big viewscreens. A smaller screen built into the console showed the same image of the starscape, and they were able to trace lines between the stars. The images they drew were copied onto the bigger screens as well, so their invented star map was hung all around them.

"I'm calling this one Bravest Warrior," Lance declared. "See, it looks like that one Arusian we met. Klaizap?"

Pidge chuckled. "This one's Mothman," she decided. "He's dating Bigfoot."

Lance grinned. "Perfect." He drew a connect-the-dots smiley face. "And this is The Emoji."

She laughed again, covering her face with her hands. She wiped at her eyes, and Lance realized that they were again starting to well up with tears.

"Hey," he said gently. "You okay?"

"You just…." She shook her head. "Sometimes you just remind me so much of Matt." "We'd do this kind of stuff all the time. Stargazing, and pointing out the constellations. Then he'd start making up his own, and I'd call him an idiot." She smiled, bittersweet. "God, I miss him."

He looked at her fondly, then reached over to wrap an arm around her. "Well, I am more than happy to play the surrogate big brother," he assured her. "I have four sisters back home, three of them younger. One is about your age. I've got lots of practice."

She leaned into him. "Thanks, Lance."

"Anytime, Katie."

They sat back, admiring the view. The stars moved lazily round them, glowing lines connecting them to form their improvised constellations.

"And you know," Lance added. "Who know where we'll be tomorrow? The entire view will be different. But that's okay. Cuz that just means we can start all over with this."

"Always seeing the stars from a different angle."

It was hours later when she finally started to drift off to sleep. She curled up into his side, burying her face into his chest. Half asleep, she murmured, "Love you, bro."

He smiled, gently kissing the top of her head. "Love you too, sis."

AN:

first time trying Lance's POV. So that's cool.

(I can't write anything that doesn't have Pidge in it)

I've done like. Every other prompt. Uuggghhhhh why does this week have to be so busy :/

I'll do my best to get days 2 and 4 out at some point (once I think of what to write for them).

Thanks for reading! You guys are the best. 3

~ Brigit