Skirting Katabasis

She Forgot to Look More Closely

Olkarion sunrises were spectacular — even better than the sunsets — but Pidge didn't really remember much other than thinking 'wow'. She remembered taking a pod to the top of a cliff near the city, and how the sky over the trees had turned into a brilliant canvas of greens and blues. But then her head was resting on something warm and Lance was waking her up to input the code to her bedroom door and she realised that he'd given her a piggy-back all the way from the pod bay (and probably from the cliff into the pod, too).

At the time she'd been too tired to care. Now, however, warmth bloomed in her chest whenever she thought about it.

The rest of the summit had gone off without a hitch, and Voltron had returned to its usual 'float around in space training, fighting, and helping people' gig. Matt was back with the rebels, Keith was back with the Blades, and Lance was back to following Pidge around like a lost puppy.

That description was a little harsh, especially when half the time Pidge's heart soared each time he suggested they do something together, even things as mundane as cleaning duty. Their relationship had definitely changed, and Pidge wasn't sure she could honestly say they were 'just friends' anymore, but... How much of that was just wishful thinking? Her crush on Lance had become almost impossible to ignore once Keith had planted the damn idea in her head, and while she was fine when he was around she'd taken to over-analysing every little interaction whenever she was alone and bored.

She had three very good male friends now (not counting Coran, who was much too old for her), and she figured that was a decent enough sample size on which to base a comparative analysis. The results were...confusing. Inconclusive. Lance sat much closer, touched her much more often, spent more time one-on-one. Late-night movies on his bed almost always ended up with them falling asleep on top of each other.

That never happened with her other friends (all of whom were very careful to turn the movie off once Pidge started dozing, and none of whom were ever alone in dark bedrooms with Pidge anyway).

(Quiznak, even thinking about it made it sound inappropriate.)

Still, Lance hadn't been acting any different. Not in the ways that mattered. He wasn't blushing any more than normal around her, and he was never the tool he always was around girls he liked. So maybe it was just Lance who was inappropriate?

Perhaps a comparative analysis of Lance's relationships would yield more definitive results.

She needed more data.

God only knew how she was going to get it, though. It wasn't like she could enlist the mice, and Coran would eventually notice if she kept hacking the camera logs. On that note, Lance would eventually catch her watching the recordings with how much he was hanging around, and she didn't want to find out how he'd react to that. Maybe she should just kiss him and see if he freaked out.

If he did, they'd eventually go back to being friends again. If he didn't...

What would happen if he didn't?

She wasn't sure if she had time for a boyfriend. Hell, she wasn't sure she felt ready for a boyfriend. As much as she wanted his arms around her and his lips on hers, the idea was also somehow mortifying.

Pidge couldn't explain it. It wasn't logical. But she didn't trust herself not to run away squealing like a grade schooler if he actually held her hand, so she was fine with the pseudo-platonic relationship they had. Aside from Keith — who Pidge had ruled out going to for relationship advice after he sprayed his water all over her when she told him about the sunrise 'date' — Green was the only one who she actually talked to about Lance, and the lion seemed to think she should wait and see.