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“I don’t know why you even brought the cow back with you in the first place,” Keith sighed.
“What do you not understand about ‘it was free with purchase’. I don’t know how many times I’ve told you,” Pidge had their arms crossed and was kicking the back of the seat in front of them. “We better get that adapter while we’re here.”
“Okay, first we are returning the cow. Second, you two are apologising for raiding the coin fountain,” Shiro pointed towards Lance and Pidge. “Third, we need to figure out how to earn some GAC, unfortunately. And no. Not from the fountain. We’re paladins. Find some quick work, unfortunately the Galra have too tight a control on many planets. And if we want to help them, and supply ourselves, we need to be able to keep our presence under the radar sometimes. I know, it sounds less than ideal, but sometimes it’s more dangerous to start a revolution. Not to mention we’ll burn out if we do it every time.”
“You need to stay away from that knife shop,” Shiro jabbed his finger towards Keith before turning to point at Hunk. “No more trouble, Keith. Hunk, I need you to go see if you can strike up a deal with Sal. Maybe take Keith with you, its far enough away. I don’t know if that guy would remember your face, but he sounded way too interested in your knife for me to be comfortable. And Hunk could probably get this guy to vouch for you, after hearing the story.”
“Ok, and? What do we do after we take back the cow, make Lance sing for coins?” Pidge raised their eyebrows.
“Offer to sweep stores, see if theres a contest with a cash prize somewhere. If you wan’t the adapter, you need to earn the GAC, like I said, we’re trying to earn it so we can do things like this more easily, more covert. No more cows. No more security chasing you out.” Shiro prodded the screen, double checking their progress. “We’re almost there now. I’m going to go apologise to security. Despite everything Coran said, this could be a good stop for us, to learn new information and pick up necessities. Better to not draw unwanted attention.”
“Okay, Shiro, I hear you. But wouldn’t walking right up to Galra security be a little… maybe just a teeny bit… the opposite of what you’re saying?” Hunk, proudly sitting shotgun, looked over to Shiro.
“I think its reasonable. It was about a week ago this all happened, on Earth you’d get a mall ban. If I go in and explain that it was ‘kids being kids’ and how ‘sorry’ you all are, we might be able to use this to our advantage, right under the Galra’s noses.”
“That’s kind of badass,” Pidge stopped kicking the back of Shiro’s chair for a second, “Its kind of great, actually. We’re kicking their butts and they can’t even find us in their own territory!” Pidge cackled to themselves for a second.
“Exactly.”
—————
“Shiro, do we really have to take the cow back?” Lance was patting the cow, pouting up at Shiro.
“Lance, we can’t realistically keep it,” Keith snapped.
“Even though its cute?”
“Lance, you need to take it back. Its not fair to the cow, we have nowhere for it to live,” Shiro unconsciously stepped between Keith and Lance to diffuse the situation before it escalated. “Come on, guys. Go on.”
With some grumbling, everyone dispersed. Keith hung back for a second, staring at Shiro, before following Hunk.
“I can’t believe he was serious,” Hunk surprised Keith by saying it first. “I mean, I am super excited- don’t get me wrong. I just can’t believe it. It was actually pretty cool to work at Sal’s, up until that security guy showed up-“
“Hunk.”
“It was kind of awesome, to sort of, forget for like an hour that we’re supposed to be- well, you know.”
“…” Keith was taken aback by how honest Hunk was, and how it was surprisingly sad. “Yeah. I guess, you’d probably be doing something like that while on a break from the Garrison, right?”
“Yeah,” Hunk smiled a little, “Actually, I kind of helped out one of my uncles once at his restaurant….”
————
“Do you think theres an arcade?” Pidge looked around the mall, trying to find the Earth store. “Do you think we could try hustling pool? I think we could pull it off. You kind of make people want to talk to you, or hit you. Lance?”
Lance was just pulling the cow along, looking around for himself.
“Lance! Hello? Are you ignoring me on purpose?”
“Huh? Sorry, spaced out.” Lance blinked and shook his head a little. He wasn’t feeling his best, but Shiro wouldn’t take no for an answer. Coran and Allura were going to be busy readjusting the warp drive again, and it was ‘strongly suggested’ that they go out for the next several vargas. “Sure, we can try that. I know a little bit about pool, though I’m better at skee ball.”
“People don’t bet on skee ball. I’ll be the cinch for it, anyway.” Lance quirked a brow as he stared at Pidge, “Look, before I met you and Hunk at the Garrison, I didn’t really have a lot of patience to try and make friends. I had to do something.”
————–
“Hello?” Shiro knocked at the door to the security office. The maps had pointed him in the right direction, and he took a steeling breath.
“What?” The door opened, revealing the rather short Galra guard. Shiro kept his face carefully schooled, “Something to report? Lost and found is dealt with by the information centre.”
“Um, actually, I am here to apologize for my… siblings.” Shiro swallowed, “They came by… earlier. And caused a little havoc. We’re new to the area, and they dealt with the changes poorly.”
“Your siblings?” The guard narrowed his eyes, “Well, I’m busy. It’s a big mall. I’m not going to remember everything. And besides, kids aren’t on my radar, we’ve had pirate issues in the past and I’d-“
“They, um, thought it would be funny to dress as pirates. And from my understanding, caused quite a scene. I do apologize.” Shiro felt a cold sweat break out on his neck. This seemed like a terrible idea, the guard wasn’t responding how he had hoped.
“Are they back?” The guard shouted, startling Shiro into a slight jump. He calmed his initial reaction, stopping with his hands up, gloved palms facing the guard. It was still scratching in the back of his mind, this was trouble, this needed to end, he needed to run. He stilled his shaking.
“They came back, with me, to work to make up for the trouble they caused.”
“That’s… Responsible. I can accept that.” The guard backed off, and the alarms in Shiro’s head eased just a bit. He leaned forward with one last burst of aggression, “I’m keeping my eye on them. One more incident and I’m banning all of you. Got it?”
“Yes, sir.” Shiro took a step back and felt surprise break over him, this just might work. “I’ll make sure they work hard.”
————-
“He’s a hard worker,” Hunk was nearly pleading with Sal, “Really knows his way around a knife.”
“I’m not cluttering up my kitchen.” The man was large and rather intimidating. His had his arms crossed and a snarl on his face.
“Oh, oh I’m sorry, your kitchen?” Keith smacked his hand to his face. “Your kitchen was a disaster. Your employee died in your kitchen and you strapped me to it, and I laboured and made you what you are now. Are you even still following my instructions? Have you gone all Kitchen Nightmares on me, and took the good I gave you and thrown it out behind my back?”
“What I do in my kitchen is my own business.” The man leaned forward, jaw jutting forward and chewing on a crumpled straw.
“Unless you’re doing it right, it’s a business doomed to fail.”
“Huh,” Sal, the huge intimidating guy wielding a knife while Hunk felt the need to get all up in his grill and kitchen quite literally, leaned back and barked out a laugh. “There you go, that’s how you veil a threat, kid. Not bad.”
“What the fuck did you manage to get up to in one, single, varga?” Keith asked from behind his hands.
“Who’s this schmuck again? Some friend, knows knives. Can he cook. Why’d you come back anyway, thought you were on the run.”
“We were, but now its all like, community service this, make up for the hassle that.” Hunk waved his hand dismissively. “You think I was trouble, this guy really pissed off one of those fancy sword shops upstairs. He’s not allowed anywhere without someone now.”
“Shut up,” Keith slapped his arm, “Its not that bad. You all act like I’m going to go buy an arms ship if you turn your back on me or something.”
“Would you?”
“… Just shut up and show me how to make this tuber paste.”
———-----
“That was surprisingly easy, I thought the guy would have been all offended we were returning the free gift,” Pidge looked back over their shoulder at the store.
“Yeah who would have thought the guy wanted it back,” Lance tucked his hands in his pocket, he was shaking no matter how hard he tried to hold back on shivering. “He seemed a little relieved. I mean, he did give you that.”
“Yeah, I’m surprised. Guess he grew attached,” Pidge tossed the small brick they held in the air, “Still, our gain! We can finally play Killbot Phantasm.”
“Yeah, that’ll be pretty cool,” Lance answered on autopilot, “Think Shiro still wants us to try and earn some GAC?”
“Ugh, probably. Pool?”
“Sure, sounds easy.”
———————————-
“Pay up, nerds,” Pidge held out their hand, waiting for the other two to hand over the GAC. “We agreed. I get the 80 tickets for that duck, too.”
“Nah. It was kind of a weak game, honestly. Don’t want to pay you now.”
“No way,” Pidge shook their head, “I won, fair and square, and I even sunk them all in order.”
“Nah, we said nah,” The taller alien with 4 arms shoved Pidge. They were knocked back into the table. “You’re not hustling us, quinteb.”
“Lance-“ Pidge turned to make sure Lance was on his way. He was still sitting across the arcade, where they agreed he’d sit to make sure nobody tried anything funny. He was asleep. Pidge felt a jolt of panic, “Lance!”
“Stop crying for your guardian,” The alien shoved Pidge again, “Shut up, okay. Don’t make a fuss.” They backed off, not really wanting to fight, it seemed. The two alien’s walked away, laughing together.
“Assholes!” Pidge yelled after them before whirling and stomping towards Lance. “Lance!”
Lance startled and fell out of his chair. He shook his head, bringing his hand up to cover his eyes. The quick movement made the world spin, and the arcade’s bright lights were dancing all over his vision. It was disorienting and made his head throb.
“What the hell! You were supposed to be watching,” Pidge was red with fury, and their eyes were watering ever so slightly. “What if they didn’t walk away!”
“What if who didn’t what?”
“I can’t believe you right now!” Pidge was starting to cause a scene, “They backed out on our game, and you were asleep, and things could have gone really badly and you just-! You just decided to have a nap!”
“I’m-“ Lance was having trouble following. The girl behind the prize counter was walking over now, looking less than impressed. Did he do something? Shit, the last thing he remembered was making a deal with Pidge to sit back and make sure nothing went wrong, since he was feeling so crummy.
“Excuse me,” the counter girl broke in, cutting off another tirade from Pidge, “You need to quiet down, little kids play here. I don’t want to make you leave, but you need to chill out.”
“Oh! So those guys can shove me over a game, but I can’t be mad about it!”
“Pidge, you need to calm down, okay. I’m sorry.” Lance stood up, none to steady, and put his hand on Pidge’s shoulder. It was as much to steady himself as to calm them down. Pidge shrugged him off, and he lost his balance.
“You know what, on second thought, you two need to go.” The employee crossed her arms, “Like, now.”
“Fine!” Pidge huffed and grabbed Lance’s hand to pull him up.
“Han’on” Lance slurred, it was too fast. He felt the room spin again, but he wasn’t on his ass on the floor already, so it was even more disorienting. “Pidge, hann’n-“ Lance’s vision was totally blacked out and he felt the blood drain from his face right before he dropped.
——————
Shiro had walked around a bit, and found some information on different colonies that might come in handy. Other places they could maybe trade physical labour for supplies, on the down low. A lot more places where the technology had adapted to be more like some of the cities on Earth.
It was a lot harder to find something he could do for a few hours in this mall though. Most shops and stalls were staffed by disinterested twenty-somethings or teenagers. He got a lot of ‘let me call my manager’ type answers. And, he really wasn’t sure how to respond to that. He had basically gone right from graduating at the Garrison, to working there, to Kerebos, to… everything that happened, and then he found himself here.
He was just checking one of the maps again, trying to figure out if anyone else maybe had better luck than he had. Then he heard the mall scooter, and a newly familiar voice shouting. He spun on his heel and spotted the mall cop puttering off to some neon lit storefront, and he took off running.
The chances were slim, but trouble always seemed to follow them, so he wouldn’t be surprised.
————————
“What happened?” The Galra guard climbed off his scooter. At his feet were the two pirate children, and the arcade employee was standing there wringing her hands.
“He-“ The one spoke, “He just dropped.” Pidge was sitting on the floor beside Lance, hand still hoolding his from when they tried to pull him up earlier.
“Pidge!” Shiro’s voice cut across the arcade. The music was quieted, and the lights had been turned on after the counter girl hit the silent alarm to get help. “Pidge, whats going on?”
“Shiro, he just, he just fell. He won’t wake up.” Pidge deflated as soon as Lance went limp and was shaken with the immediate loss of their anger.
“Hey, Lance,” Shiro brushed Lance’s bangs back, he could feel warmth through his gloves. “Come on, time to open your eyes. Can you go grab Hunk and Keith, Pidge? I think we need to head back…” Pidge just sat there for a moment under Shiro’s gaze.
“I-“ They swallowed uncomfortably, “I yelled at him.”
“Its ok, I kind of want to yell at him too, right now. He’s burning up, but right now we need to get him back to bed, okay?”
“Yeah.” Pidge stood up and brushed off their knees, “Yeah, you’re right.” They swiped their hand under their nose. It was scary to see someone dead faint for the first time, but the shock of it was wearing off a little.
————————
“Here you go!” Sal served another customer with a huge smile. Things were going twice as fast as the last time now that Hunk was back and brought help. The two of them seemed to be able to read each other’s minds, it seemed to him.
“Another one up, Sal!” Hunk slip another plate across the metal counter. “Hey, Keith, prepped those cuts of meat yet? Got a handful of orders for those.”
“Yeah.” Keith nodded the affirmative. He turned back to the ingredients he was preparing, and to Sal’s prep employee. He was demonstrating how Hunk needed everything prepared for this new dish, one of the team’s favorites back at the castle. It was a little rough, they basically had to go it in silence with some gestures since neither of them spoke the other’s language.
“Awesome. Okay, now you guys need to pay real close attention here. You want to make the flavours sing just right,” he sprinkled on some shredded tree fruit, “It takes a gentle hand and this stuff is really potent. You can’t over do it or it’ll overpower the spice underneath.”
Across the food court, Pidge was coming through at a sprint. Hunk caught the flash of their hair and green sweater and perked up to see what was going on.
“Hunk! Keith! We gotta go!” Pidge was panting, and slammed into the order counter with full, bruising, force.
“What happened?” Hunk vaulted the counter before he even got the words out, and Keith was right behind him.
“Something’s wrong with Lance, we gotta go.”
“Sorry Sal, you got a new recipe, master that before I come back, got it?” Hunk put his fist up, and Sal bumped Hunk’s with his own. He did the same to Keith as the other boy passed by too. “Get it perfect, otherwise I’m letting this guy take his liberties with your kitchen sets.”
“You better come back, I ain’t messing around, kid.” Hunk gave a wave as he followed Pidge away.
———————–
“Hnn,” Lance stirred, finally, “Hold on, feel like I’m gonna pass out.”
“You kind of already did,” Shiro had his hand on Lance’s shoulder to keep him laying down. “Take a minute. You okay?”
“I’m,” Lance paused. Shiro was the one talking. Where was Pidge? Did he really pass out? “What happened?”
“Looks like you fainted from that fever. Why didn’t you tell someone?” Lance looked up and saw Shiro’s face swimming above his. He blinked a few time, bringing the other paladin into focus.
“Didn’t feel so bad til we got here.” He felt drained. “Didn’t realize it’d be so long.”
“Well, I’m cutting it short now, we’re gonna head back.” Shiro moved his hand to start to shift Lance to sitting, slowly. Lance stretched, feeling sore and sick down to his bones. Shiro held him still for a moment. “Thanks for calling for help for him.”
Lance looked up to see the counter girl, she looked much more relieved. Just to her left was the Galra mall cop, and Lance nearly startled seeing him. He jolted slightly, and it brought back that sickening wave where he wasn’t sure if he’d throw up or pass out and his vision swam for half a tick again before settling.
“You doing okay? I want to carry you out, but I need to make sure you’re going to be able to hold on to me first.” Lance nodded a little numbly, still feeling that wave recede. “I need to hear your answer, okay?”
“Yeah, yeah. Give me a minute, ‘m okay in a minute.” Shiro gave him a few minutes, he waited until Lance started moving of his own accord. Surprisingly, the Galra security guard helped get Lance situated on Shiro’s back. Shiro just stepped into the main hall again when the other three paladins ran up to join them.
——————–
“103.7,” Shiro blinked in surprise, “Jeeze, you really were feeling fine before we left?” Lance nodded from the bed.
“Yeah, just a headache. ‘N then in the ship I started getting cold, but thought it’d be okay.”
“Well, take it easy. Rest up.” Shiro patted Lance’s chest. He left the boy under a pile of blankets and went into the hall outside his door. He shook his head, they’d have to be more careful about things. He thought on maybe having Allura start them on that ‘open-ness’ training again.
“Shiro…” He turned, Pidge was standing behind him.
“Hey Pidge, Lance’ll be okay. Heck of a fever, but he’ll bounce back. I think he still feels bad for falling asleep on you like that.”
“That’s good…” Pidge nodded. Something seemed a little off.
“Everything… okay?” Shiro started walking towards the common area where they had all separated.
“Mhmm,” Pidge looked a little out of it, “Uh. Keith said he wasn’t feeling right. So they asked me to come get you. Just in case.”
“Oh?” Shiro felt a little spark of worry start up.
“Yeah.” Pidge rubbed at their eyes, they seemed a little pale. Oh, quiznak.
“Come here for a tick,” Shiro turned, and Pidge blinked up at him. He placed his palm on their forehead. Two down. “You’re warm, feeling okay?”
“Keith said he felt sick.”
“And I think you’re sick too. Go on, bed.” Great, the mall was some sort of vector for disease. “I’ll go check on him.”
Shiro ended up walking back to the common area with Pidge still trailing him. Keith was sitting on the couch with his head lowered between his knees, and Hunk was rubbing his back. Shiro ran his hand through his hair.
“He’s alright, just lightheaded,” Hunk answered. Shiro was glad he seemed to be okay. He sighed.
“Well, I guess we’re all taking it easy now.” Shiro shook his head, he hoped these two were just overcome with the excitement of the day, but felt like he’d end up with Lance demanding a movie day where they’d all sit on the couch in a shivering pile of misery. “Looks like we’re in for a fun week.”
Hunk gave a broken laugh.