Being Altean

"What was Altea like?"

Pidge's cheeks flushed slightly at the way Allura glanced her way. There was no unkindness or even a hint of exasperation in the princess' eyes but Pidge herself couldn't help but be a little bit embarrassed.

She's only asked for like the hundredth time.

Pidge leaned up against the railing on the bridge and looked back at the console board. She could've asked Coran, who was always willing to give a generous amount of information about the planet. But this time, like many times before- she asked Allura.

Not that Pidge would ever say anything to Coran, but she preferred asking Allura. The Altean princess was always busy, as was Coran of course- and sometimes Pidge felt she was overstepping her bounds with the same question over and over, but… There was something about Allura's answer that just felt so much more real.

There was something more personal about the way Allura would talk about Altea. Sometimes when Pidge would listen to her speak, it would be as if they weren't in the console room anymore but far away in forgotten time and a forgotten place.

Every time Pidge asked, she got a different answer in kind. There was always something new to know and something new to learn.

The princess hummed quietly to herself and tilted her head in thought as she almost seemed to look through Pidge. Her eyes were glossed over in almost a daze of thought and a soft smile grazed her lips. Pressing a few buttons, the computer screen glowed a soft blue before Allura turned towards the paladin.

The princess took a small breath, "Have I ever told of the Summer Harvests?" Her voice accented the quiet of the room, bathing it in a rich, soothing tone. Pidge couldn't help but smile before leaning back against the railing, wrapping her arms comfortably against the metal.

Allura always starter with a question.

"Every year, after the rains had finished and each tree had flowered and bore its fruit, the Alteans would come together for a summer harvest." Allura began, taking a deep breath, "The farmlands needed to be picked and replanted for our next growing season- despite what you're thinking, Pidge," The princess' lip curved into a smile, "-the purple juniberry is not the only plant we have on Altea, though that particular flower is very abundant and one of my personal favorites."

Allura flicked a few buttons on the control board, "The harvest date is always different each year. One could only start the harvest when every tree had bloomed."

The princess shook her head lightly and her silvery hair spilled over her shoulders, "It was considered very lucky to have the last tree bloom, you could always count on having good fortune for the next growing season if your tree was the starting point for the next season." Allura smiled, "I remember when the royal gardens contained the last blooming Snow Fleur, my father was so proud!"

Pidge couldn't help but smile at Allura's giddiness.

"But once every five cycles, Altea's three moons would align and into a harmonic convergence that always happened on that year's summer harvest." Allura continued, pausing briefly in thought, "When they would align, Altea's shining star would cover everything in its silver light and every tree would glow with brilliant color.

The princess quieted for a moment, "Each flower looked as if it was covered with stardust," The princess hushed, closing her eyes for a brief moment, "On the year of the harmonic convergence, there would be a great cause for festivity and much celebration. Vendors would line up for stretches down the roads as each village set up in preparation. School was canceled by the time the first moon had reached a point of quincunx. Everyone would lend a hand to help the preparations."

"So what did the royal family do for the celebration?" Pidge asked, her brow narrowing in thought.

Allura smiled, "Well, along with the small events and vendors that would sell their wares in each village, the palace held its own events. Young Alteans would come from miles around to compete in the national games for a chance to win a Starfire. We held dozens of preliminary competitions and the only way compete in the final rounds was to place in all of them."

Pidge frowned her her nose wrinkled, "What's a starfire? Is it some kind of trophy?"

"A Starfire is not a goblet but a flower," Allura's hands fell to her lap, "A very rare flower by the full name of ardenti stellarum. It only blooms every five years at the peak of the alignment which we Altean's call the quinquennium."

Pidge murmured the strange word to herself and frowned thoughtfully.

"Each year only one blooms," Allura continued, "The flower used to be abundant but as the years went by, the golden fire lily began to dwindle in numbers until it became nearly extinct." The princess paused in her rambling and gave the green paladin a funny look, as if something had just occurred to her, "Why would anyone give a cup out as a prize to be won.

Pidge frowned and finally just shrugged her shoulders, "Actually, I've never really thought about it like that before. I suppose a golden trophy is just something that Earth associates with winning I suppose."

"Oh!" Allura nodded in understanding, "So gold is a precious metal on your planet, then?"

Pidge blinked and let out a slight laugh, "Oh, no! Well- gold is a precious metal but no one ever uses real gold for a trophy, they only paint it to look yellow. Usually the trophy is made from plastic. The only time they ever use real gold would be for something like the Olympics or something which only happens every two years."

"So you earthlings compete for a painted mold..?" Allura ventured, her voice tinged with confusion. "So when Lance talks about his 'trophies', he really means a collection of melted plastic?"

Pidge snickered slightly at the wording nodded, "I suppose it's more of the principle of the idea of winning than the actual trophy itself, but you should take that up with Lance." Pidge added, internally grinning at the thought. "And it's not like every Altean competition the winner would receive a starfire, right?"

Allura nodded, "You are indeed correct! We could never afford to do such a thing. But I still can't see the merit in receiving twisted building materials as an award of a high degree."

"It's just an Earth thing I guess." Pidge shrugged, it wasn't as if she had received many trophies for much of anything while she was in school besides from the robotic club. But even then, the robotics club didn't give out the golden trophies like most other sports teams. Pidge smiled, remembering a few of the cooler gadgets that she had won when she had been a bit younger. She didn't care what anyone said, the robotics club was much cooler than any old sports team. And if she was being honest with herself, she could've totally won the grand prize in this year's competition too.

"What challenges does an earthling compete in to get these 'trophies'." Allura stumbled slightly over the word and her mouth twisted as if she wasn't sure how it felt on her tongue.

Pidge paused for a moment.

"Soccer." Pidge stated, nodding thoughtfully, "Sports mostly but I think most kids have one of those little soccer trophies that they got when they were kids because their parents signed them up for recreational."

"Sock or?" Allura carefully sounded out the word and repeated it carefully to herself.

"Yep, that's the word. I'm not that great at it but I'm sure Lance and Keith could show you a few moves if you were interested."

The two boys were much better at the sport than Pidge herself could ever dream of being. She could think of a few soccer trophies that were probably dusting up in the Holt family attic in some box. Two years of ducking from a ball was a childhood memory that the green paladin would gladly leave rotting in a cardboard box up in the attic. Her face happened to be a ball magnet and she was just glad that none of the pictures had manages to survive.

"Well, we may not have had 'sock or' but we did have a few other events to compete in." Allura proudly stated, pride clearly coloring every word. "When an Altean would prove themselves in the arena and become a champion of the games, they were brought in as a special guest of the Harvest Ball at the castle. After dinner and a few traditional dances, the Altean would be presented with the blooming flower when the moon's reached their highest point." Allura's voice became excited and Pidge could only wonder what the castle had looked like in its peak.

"So how did you turn this place-" Pidge gestured to the stark room, "-into being fit to hold a royal ball."

"Well~" Allura thrilled, looking around to room, "Because of the many delegation parties that would come during this time- it was very important to be invited to the planet for the event. Altea is- well was, during that time, one of the leading countries in political and diplomatic ties. So everything had to be coordinated as such. It would take almost a third of a cycle to get preparations all set. But most of it was done before the second moon had reached alignment."

Pidge's mind wandered as Allura went in on the details of what went into making the preparation of the ball. It sounded like a wonderful time; with ethnic foods, friends, laughter and a lot of interesting traditions. She could almost see the silver light shining in the sky as each flower bloomed with wonderful scents that filled the castle.

Each description and imaginative picture filled Pidge's thoughts with wonder and she couldn't help but laugh along with Allura as the princess tried to explain, with difficulty, the complications of fitting into Altean formal dress. The princess' talk of balls and knights and handmaids sounded like something out of the fantasy books that Pidge-or really, Katie Holt read when she was a child.

'Pidge' had never read such thing or dreamed of such a life. Pidge was the green paladin, the one who worked the hardest to save her father and her brother. Pidge was the defender of the universe who came from Earth; smart, creative, a little nerdy but also the one that the rest could rely on for anything and everything technological.

Lance always loudly boasted that it was the Altean in her that made her so good with the technology. Pidge always proclaimed that anyone else could be as good as her if they just applied themselves, but she couldn't deny that she didn't mind the connotation that went along with Lance's words.

Altean

That was something Pidge had never expected to be in her life.

She always knew she was a bit different. Adopted was different but it wasn't uncommon on Earth and she fit right into the Holt family. Her mom used to joke that she was Matt's long lost twin. No one really ever suspected that she had been from an orphanage and it was always a shock to everyone on 'share and tell' day when she would mention it. No one ever really seemed to believe her anyways, so Katie dropped it and it was fine.

Katie Holt had also been a bit different developmentally when she was baby. She had sat up, rolled over and began walking before anyone else's kid did.

'A little protegé.' Her father used to say, with a big smile on his face. 'Matt was the exact same way. He barely crawled before he was up, racing around the house!'

So she was different but that was just a Holt thing, so it was fine.

When Katie turned thirteen, things began to really change. The freckles which had always dusted heavily on her cheeks slowly began to define. She had never really noticed until someone had said something to her at school one day.

"Did you always have those?" Her classmate asked, turning around at her desk.

"Have what?" Katie asked, looking up from the top of her book. She had just gotten new glasses and had taken to hiding behind books. It was easier than dealing with the bullies that seemed to plague the middle school hallways.

"Your birthmark," She continued, pointing at Katie's face, "I don't ever remember seeing them before."

Katie's nose scrunched and her hand came up to her face, "I don't have a birthmark."

The girl frowned, "Yes you do, right there." Again, she pointed straight at Katie's face and a few of her other classmates began craning their heads to get a look.

Her expression sullied, "If there is something on my face, you could've just told me." Katie muttered before getting up out of her seat to go to the bathroom.

Staring in the bathroom mirror, Katie had discovered something much different than the jelly stain she had been expecting from the toast she had eaten that morning.

Sickle like marks slowly appeared on not just one cheekbone but on both. Each day they seemed to become more defined no matter how much she scrubbed at them. Katie had taken to researching but had found nothing about the strange shape.

She had ended up begging her mom that Christmas for makeup. They had argued back and forth on the subject of her being too young but by the time the holidays came around, Katie was more than happy to rip off the wrapping paper when she had gotten what she had wanted. It had been too easy to just use a bit of concealer in the morning to cover up the strange marks and forget about it, so it was fine.

But by the time her fourteenth birthday Katie Holt or now Pidge as she disguised herself as, realized just how different she really was.

By then the girls in the locker room had always complained for the last two years one way or another about cramps, tampons and the never ending cycle of popping zits. Pidge complained about her itching ears.

There were a few times that Pidge had woken in the night with the helix of her outer ear itching and burning with a sensation that she couldn't explain. At first she had thought it was a rash until she woke up one morning only to find the 'rash' on her ear had peeled. A new fresh layer of pinky skin revealed that her ears were growing.

It had then that Pidge had realized that everything wasn't fine.

She had been too scared to ever bring it up with her mom and never once had she mentioned the fact that Pidge had never asked or needed her to buy a new box of tampons or a tube of zit cream.

Pidge had always assumed that she was just a late bloomer, it wasn't uncommon and it actually worked in her favor once she had decided to enroll herself into the academy. She had a lot more on her mind than worry about why she wasn't getting any pimples. But itching ears wasn't the only strange thing that Pidge discovered about herself.

Looking back on it, Pidge couldn't help but wonder if her father had known about her. She was supposedly adopted from an orphanage- but what kind of orphanage carried Altean babies? It was another one of the countless questions that Pidge would ask her father once she found him again.

Surprisingly enough, her ears weren't as hard to hide as she had thought it would've been when she first discovered the horrifying sight in the mirror. She had panicked as her fingers felt along her slowly pointing ears. It was easy to let her long hair fall over the tips of her ears as they hid behind her honey colored locks. People never saw what they didn't expect to see.

When she had finally figured it out, telling the rest of the crew- especially Coran and Allura, had been one of the hardest things Pidge had ever done.

Pidge had been worried that the other paladins would treat her differently because she wasn't really human. But everyone, especially Allura and Coran had been very accepting of her which was a relief.

The princess had gathered her up in hug, her eyes brimmed with unshed tears as she gladly and formally welcomed her back to the Altean family.

The paladins were her family, the crew along with Allura and Coran were her family. But to have the princess speak of her as an Altean citizen- it made her freeze.

Pidge was more scared of admitting it to herself. How was she supposed to be an Altean when she didn't know anything about Altea?

How was she supposed to live up to the expectations of a culture that she didn't even really understand.

So she asked, day after day about Altea. And with each answer, it became more and more apparent that the more Pidge asked, the more she was enlightened of how clueless she really was about Altea.

"-when the convergence finally came upon in the late evening, a silver light would beam down and every Altean's mark would glow in harmony." Allura trailed off and finally seemed to catch Pidge's plummeting mood.

A cool hand against her cheek shocked Pidge from her thoughts and the green paladin allowed her chin to be lifted up by the slim fingers. Pidge couldn't bare to lift her eyes though, she was afraid of what she might see. Or what she might do if she caught eyes with the other Altean.

Neither said anything for a long moment.

"I know it's hard, Pidge." Allura spoke, thumbing a finger along Pidge's cheek. "I can't truly understand what you must be feeling it what it is like for you," She stopped briefly over her Altean mark. "-but for what it's worth, you would make for a wonderful champion, my paladin." Allura's voice was soft, and her tone was kind.

The green paladin took a small breath. The Altean princess had been a big help to her in many ways. Both Coran and Allura were very supportive of her, more so than they would probably ever really realize. It was hard for Pidge to try and understand a culture that already felt overwhelming and impossible to understand. But Coran and Allura tried their hardest to make her feel like she could've belonged.

"Y-You think..?" Pidge murmured, swallowing back the heaviness in her chest before lifting her hooded gaze to meet Allura's.

The princess smiled her and her eyes glittered, "As a defender of the universe; you would have a very good chance in the arena, I'm very sure."

Pidge gave a slight nod and Allura turned back to the screen and computed a few more sequences into control screen.

The green paladin back sat against the rails and looked out the window into space. Pidge couldn't help but move her fingers up against her cheeks where Allura's hand had been and was surprised to feel a dampness.

Wiping any tracks of tears away, Pidge took a small breath to steady her breathing.

"What was Earth like?"

It was Allura who had broken the comfortable silence between them. Pidge looked over in surprise, "You want to know about Earth?" She asked, her brow raised.

"I have five paladins on board who are all steeped with Earth's culture." Allura stated, swiveling around in her chair. "Of course I would like to know." The princess paused for a small moment and Pidge could see her lips curve into a small smile. "That is, of course, if you're willing to share."

Pidge felt something warm bloom in her chest and gears began to turn in her mind. After a pause and then two, she spoke, "Have I ever told you about snow?"

Author's Note: I always have found the idea of Altean!Pidge to be interesting. This could be a oneshot or it could not- I haven't decided yet. If anyone has any ideas or requests they'd like to see portrayed in an Altean!Pidge AU, comment them or PM me! I'd love to see what ideas people have.