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Pidge never expected this turn of events. A year ago, she never expected to have infiltrated the Galaxy Garrison under an alias, seen some kind of obviously-extraterrestrial space-ship crash land mere miles away, and followed her teammates on a quest to rescue a thought-to-be-dead pilot. She never expected to find herself on a high-tech cruiser, holding said unconscious pilot under the arms (and damn he was heavy… was he made of solid muscle or bricks?), while a guy she had met not five minutes prior drove them all into the desert. She also never imagined this would be how she would die, speeding off the edge of a cliff.
“What are you doing?!” Lance shrieked in her ear, as Keith sped up.
“Shut up and trust me!” Keith shouted back, leaning over the controls and revving the engine.
Trust you?! I barely even know you! Pidge wanted to shout those words, but as they went flying over the edge of the cliff, a wordless scream was the only thing that made its way out of her mouth. Hunk and Lance screamed as well, clutching onto the cruiser and each other. Some distant part of Pidge wondered absently if she was hurting Shiro with how tightly she was squeezing him, but the larger part of her was preoccupied with the sickening drop in her stomach and panicking over her impending death à la splattering into the ground like a bug on a windshield.
They were going to die, they were going to die, they were going to die….
Keith’s wrist snapped, shifting the controls, and the hovering mechanism flared to life under them, stopping their descent before they could crash into the sandstone rocks. The force of the sudden direction change nearly had her flying off the cruiser, and it was only the dead weight of the pilot in her lap that kept her on the vehicle and prevented her from becoming a Pidge-kebab skewered on a cactus.
“You are crazy!” Lance shouted over the rush of wind. “Absolutely crazy!”
“You’re alive, aren’t you?” Keith shouted back, speeding off through the empty desert. “I told you to trust me!”
“Still crazy!”
~~~~~~~
Pidge gingerly rubbed her side as she made her way to the castle-ship’s infirmary. God, her ribs ached. Not for the first time, she was coming to regret disguising herself as a guy. It was one thing to go to classes and train in a flight simulator while wearing bandages around one’s chest, but quite another to actually work out and fight hand-to-hand combat while wearing them. She supposed she could tell her teammates, but she was afraid of what they would think of her, after hiding something like this from them for so long. She never meant to lie to them; this had just been about finding out what happened to her father and brother. She was now too wrapped up in her alias’s identity, though, all because she couldn’t bear the thought of her new teammates thinking of her as a liar. That thought hurt, almost as much as the pain in her ribs. She just couldn’t lose their trust in her. Or, at least, their trust in Pidge Gunderson, and who they thought he was.
The lights flickered on when she entered the infirmary. She tapped the button next to the door to close it, then headed for the rows of cabinets and drawers along the back wall. That looked like a likely place to keep medicine and medical supplies, right? Once she started digging through the cabinets, though, she quickly ran into a problem; everything was written in some kind of strange alien script, most likely Altean, given that this was apparently an Altean ship.
“Oh come on,” Pidge muttered, pawing through a drawer full of boxes of who-knew-what. “All I want is some painkillers. Is that too much to ask for?” The next drawer she opened was full of neatly-organized bandaids of all sizes, steri-strips, gauze, and a couple rolled-up ace bandages. She hesitated, hand hovering over the widest one. Well, the one she was using now was starting to get a little stretched out... She had noticed that she was having to wrap it even tighter recently just to get it to stay up. That was probably why her ribs hurt so much, honestly, although all the training certainly wasn’t helping.
Pidge picked up the cloth bandage and set it on the counter, sliding the drawer closed. Hopefully, no one would notice its absence. If they did, she could always say something about pulling a muscle. That sounded believable, right? She stripped off her green and white sweater and unwound the old, stretched ace bandage from around her ribs. Oh, god, that felt so good to finally take off. She took a deep breath, but something pinched at her side, a flare of pain that she really, really hoped wasn’t a cracked rib. Setting the old bandage aside, she picked up the new one and was just in the middle of contemplating how it fastened without a clip or velcro -- Altean magic-science, probably -- when she heard the door open behind her.
Panic gripping her chest, she looked over her shoulder and found Keith standing there, hand hovering over the door’s button and staring at her with his mouth open in a small o-shape. He blinked and reached up to slap a hand over his eyes. “Sorry, I didn’t know--”
“Just… just get out, please?” Pidge asked, scrambling to hold her sweater over her front.
“Were those ace bandages?” Keith asked, eyes still covered. “Don’t you know how dangerous that is?”
“I don’t really have a choice.” Pidge snapped, gathering them up. She should have just taken these back to her room.
“No.” Keith shook his head, sounding surprisingly adamant. “No. No, no.” He backed up, feeling blindly for the door. She stared at him, bewildered. No what? He finally managed to find the button and pressed it, and the doors slid open. He turned and pointed sternly in her general direction, eyes still closed. “Put your shirt on, but not the bandages. Don’t you dare put those back on.”
“What are you doing?” She hissed.
“Just wait here.” He said, blindly knocking his elbow against the door frame on his way out.
“Keith!” She hissed, panic thudding in her heart. “Please, I’m begging you, don’t tell the others!”
“I’m not. Trust me. Just wait here.” With that, he left, closing the door behind him.
Heart pounding, she quickly pulled her shirt back on over her bare chest. Her boobs were small, but still noticeable under the fabric if you were really looking. She shoved the roll of Altean ace bandages in her pocket so he couldn’t try to take them away from her.
She couldn’t believe this. Her secret was out. Keith was probably going to go get Shiro, or Allura and Coran, and they were going to lecture her and tell her that she couldn’t be a part of the team anymore because she had lied to them all and kept a secret this big from them and they were supposed to not have any secrets among them and they would kick her off the team and she would never be able to find her family and everyone would hate her…
She leaned on the countertop and buried her face in her hands, trying to calm down. Spiraling panic wouldn’t help her now. She had to be rational. Maybe she could bargain with Keith and get him to agree to keep quiet about this. She didn’t know him very well, but he didn’t seem like someone who was prone to gossiping about other people’s secrets. He seemed to just stay in his own lane, most of the time. Yeah, maybe she could try bargaining with him. Maybe that would work.
There was a rush of air as the doors opened again, and she cautiously turned around to find Keith in the doorway with a hand over his eyes. “Did you put your shirt on?” He asked, feeling blindly for the button to close the door behind him.
Pidge nodded, then realized he couldn’t see her. “Yeah.” She took a deep breath as he lowered his hand. “Listen, Keith--”
Wordlessly, Keith held up what looked like half a black tank-top. Pidge paused, staring at it.
“Uh… what is that?”
“A binder.” Keith said, holding it out to her. “You know, the safer way to bind.”
“I… didn’t know.” Pidge took it hesitantly. The back was made of some stretchy material, and the front had a stiffer cloth panel inside it. “Where did you get this?” She asked, eyeing him suspiciously.
Keith smiled. “It’s mine, actually. I had two.”
“Yours…” Pidge was stunned. She had no idea.
“What are your pronouns?” Keith asked. “Just checking.”
Pidge sighed. “I’m not… I’m not trans. I’m sorry. I disguised myself as a guy to get into the Galaxy Garrison undetected, since Katie Holt -- my real name -- was on their watch-list.” She looked up, dreading the disgust she thought she would find on his face, but he was just watching her expectantly. “I mean, personally, she/her pronouns. But around the team… he/him, I guess. For now. I… I might tell them.”
“What’s stopping you?” Keith asked, leaning back against an exam table.
“I don’t want everyone to think I’m a liar.” Pidge said quietly.
“I don’t think you’re a liar.” Keith smiled reassuringly. “And they won’t, either.”
Pidge looked up, heart pounding. “Really?”
“Really.” Keith nodded. “Trust me.”
Pidge looked down at the binder in her hands. Maybe… maybe he was right.
~~~~~~~
Pidge raced around the corner, skidding to a halt when she saw the intruder in front of her. Her finger pressed down on the trigger of her bayard. The glowing, green blade sprang forward on a matching green cord, wrapping around the intruder’s forearm.
“I got him!” Pidge shouted into her helmet’s comm system.
The Galra intruder turned and pulled on the cord as he started running down the hallway, yanking her along behind him.
Pidge let out a yelp. “ I don’t got him! ” Damn, this Galra was strong ! Not to mention probably twice her height and a few times her weight. Frustrating as it was, it was little surprise that he was able to drag her along behind him as he ran, with seemingly little effort.
She flailed for a moment before landing right on her backside, skidding across the ground on her armor. At this speed, she couldn’t get any leverage to stop him; it was all she could do to just hang on. A burst of light and heat exploded around her, and she shouted for Hunk to stop shooting, but by the time he heard her, they were already past him. She could hear Coran’s witty commentary of the battle, but she was mostly focused on not careening into a wall and wasn’t really listening to him.
Suddenly Keith was there, running beside her. Her eyes met his, and without speaking, words seemed to pass between them.
Slow him down.
What are you doing?
Just trust me .
She did. Gripping her bayard tighter, she pulled back with all her strength and dug her heels into the floor, slowing the intruder just a little bit. Keith charged ahead, arms pumping at his side, and struck at the Galra with his sword. The intruder rounded a corner and yanked hard on the cord wrapped around his wrist, and Pidge had a split second to panic before she went flying, crashing into Keith. His arms wrapped around her instinctively and he turned them so that he took the brunt of the fall, slamming into the floor as they fell. Before she had even processed what had happened, he was up and running after the intruder again.
Her heart thudded against her chest as she picked up her fallen bayard and ran after them. She didn’t know whether him shielding her like that had been a coincidence or intentional, but she was grateful for it all the same.
~~~~~~~
“Hey, Pidge,” Keith dropped onto the couch next to her. She didn’t look up from her work, busy typing up some code on her laptop, but she did make a questioning hum and tilted her head in his direction slightly. “What are you doing, right now?”
“Trying to create a mechanism to add to our gloves that will be able to unlock Galra-tech doors and computer systems.” Pidge explained.
“Good idea.” Keith nodded. “Just in case you guys don’t have me or Shiro around at the time.”
“Exactly.” Pidge said. “Right now I’m building the foundation of the mechanism based DNA samples of Shiro’s right hand, but it would be nice to have a bio version to cross-reference it with.”
“I can help with that.” Keith said. “What do you need?”
“Hang on, I need to grab the scanner from my lab.” Pidge picked up her laptop and stood up.
“Oh, here, I can hold that.” Keith offered.
She eyed him critically, gaze scanning his face for a moment, then nodded. “Alright, but you had better not let anything happen to it. I’m trusting you with my baby.”
“I’ll protect your tech-baby with my life.” Keith snorted quietly, taking the laptop she held out.
“You’d quiznaking better.” Pidge teased. “I’ll be right back.” She hurried off, grabbed a portable analyzer and a set of goggles from the workbench of her lab, then jogged back to the lounge. Keith was right where she left him on the couch, with her computer settled on his lap and his hands holding onto the sides of it securely. The screen was tilted down slightly but not closed. At this point, the code was basic and in the beginning stages, so she doubted anyone would be able to understand much of it if they read it, but she appreciated the gesture that he was obviously not looking through her computer.
She hopped over the back of the couch and plopped down in her seat, switching the scanner on. “Alright, now open your hand and close your eyes, and you will get a big surprise.”
“The last time someone said that to me, Lance put food goo in my hand.” Keith said flatly.
Pidge chuckled. “Well, this time, the ‘surprise’ is you not going blind from ultraviolet light particles.” He leaned away from her and made a face at that. She rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing with it. Just trust me, okay?”
Still looking a little wary, he did as she asked, closing his eyes and turning his hand over so that it was palm-up. She moved his hand where she wanted it, against the seat of the couch, then slipped the goggles on and aimed the scanner at his hand. A bright, cyan-blue light burst from the scanner with a low hum, and Keith tensed but didn’t move. Pidge counted to five in her head, then switched the scanner off. “There, all done.”
Keith opened his eyes and turned his hand over, opening and closing his fingers.
“And now I’ll just upload this data and cross-reference it with Shiro’s scans…” Pidge said, taking her laptop back and plugging in the scanner to the USB port. “Thank you so much, by the way. This data will help a lot.”
“Glad to be of service.” Keith said. She expected him to get up and leave, but he didn’t. The two of them sat there in comfortable silence for several minutes, until he cleared his throat. “Hey, Pidge?”
“Hm?” She didn’t look up, instead frowning at a slight coding error on the screen.
“Open your hand and close your eyes, and you will get a big surprise.” Keith said, repeating the rhyme she had just used a few minutes ago. She looked up at him, arching an eyebrow questioningly. He smiled, a touch of mischief in his eyes. “It’s not anything bad. Just trust me?”
Well, he had certainly earned that. “Alright.” She closed her eyes and held her hand palm-up, as he had. For a moment, nothing happened. Then she felt a warm, glove-covered hand slide against her own, fingers weaving together. A moment later, something touched her lips, the contact soft and hesitant. She smiled, even as the lips moved away from her own. “You can do better than that.” She told him, opening her eyes.
He blinked, looking confused. “Really?”
“Yep,” Pidge slid closer, her free hand coming up to tangle in his hair. “You can. Trust me.”
He chuckled and leaned in to kiss her again.