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Ulaz really did not know what to do, when the spinning bottle landed on him. He was still a little uncertain about the nature of this game, but it did seem to be a bit romantic, and he had to admit, he had never thought of the Green Paladin in that light. Nevertheless, he didn’t have much time to ponder it before Pidge grabbed him by the wrist and tugged him off to the closet. The door shut behind them, leaving the two of them in complete darkness in the small quarters.
“I must admit, I am still confused about what we ought to be doing.” Ulaz cleared his throat. It took only a few ticks for his eyes to adjust – he had always been able to see in the dark quite well – and he could make out the dark form of Pidge in front of him (well, in front of and down. She was quite a bit shorter than him)
“Anything we want.” Pidge said, and her shoulders lifted a little in a way that Ulaz could make out as a shrug. Her tone was not the same innuendo-laid tone Lance had used, more like simply stating a fact.
The two of them settled into silence for a few moments, awkwardness as thick as the darkness around them. Ulaz cleared his throat again. “I never apologized properly. For dragging you through the castle by your bayard.” After their allyship became more cemented, he had always felt bad about that. At the time, he had thought her a nuisance, but no more bothersome than a bug. It startled him just how easily he was able to knock her off her feet and drag her through the corridors without slowing his pace; she was truly tiny, compared to a Galra. Once they became allies, Ulaz worried about her being a paladin. Then he watched her take down Antok in training and decided she could hold her own just fine when she played to her strengths.
“Oh yeah, I forgot about that.” Pidge laughed. “Don’t worry about it, it’s fine. Water under the bridge.”
Ulaz wasn’t familiar with the expression, but he thought it indicated forgiveness. He was glad.
Pidge went on. “Hey, it’s kind of weird that we’re just standing in the dark. I can’t see anything at all. I think there’s a switch here…”
He saw the dark line of her arm stretch out and feel along the wall, then there was a click and a burst of light so bright that it blinded Ulaz’s sensitive eyes, making him hiss and bunch up his shoulders as he squeezed his eyes shut against the onslaught.
“Oh, your eyes are more sensitive than humans, aren’t they?” Pidge asked. “Sorry about that.”
“They are.” Ulaz lifted a hand to shield his eyes from the bright light – his face was also much closer to the bulb than hers. “I will be fine, so long as I do not stare at it.”
“Hmm…” Pidge made a thoughtful noise, but Ulaz couldn’t see her face past the green and purple spots dancing in front of his vision. “Hang on, I’ve got an idea.” Hands took his forearms and guided him forward a step, moving him into the center of the closet. “Okay, stand right there.”
Ulaz realized a moment too late that she was… climbing up him, like he was a tree. He blinked past the spots in time for her face to become level with his, foot propped on his hip and hands gripping his shoulders.
“Oh, and since this is seven minutes in heaven…” Pidge smirked and leaned in to press her lips to his, quickly due to her precarious position, and then hauled herself up and sat on the back of his shoulders.
Completely bewildered by this turn of events, Ulaz didn’t know what to do other than take hold of her calves to keep her from falling.
“Okay, now just stand right where you are and don’t move.” Pidge told him, and he heard a couple metallic clinks before an ominous thunk directly above him. He chanced a look up and found the Green Paladin had removed a panel of the ceiling where the light was. “Oh yeah, this should be easy to fix.” She said, reaching up into the panel.
“What are you fixing?” Ulaz asked, confused. Clearly the light was operational.
“Gonna dim this light so it’s not so bright.” Pidge replied. “That way it won’t hurt your eyes.”
Ulaz was quiet as he thought about her words. The lengths she would go… dismantling a part of the castle, even just a small bit like this, but with the explicit purpose of helping him… that was very sweet. Ulaz didn’t know what to say. Luckily, she didn’t really need him to say anything, just hold the screwdriver she had finished up with. He did so, letting go of one of her calves to hold it up where she could easily grab it if she needed it again. She was small enough to sit comfortably on his broad shoulders with no danger of losing her balance, but he still kept a hand around her other calf just in case; he would have hated himself if he let her fall when she was doing something so nice for him. His long fingers could easily wrap completely around her thin leg, and he took care not to grip her too hard.
“Alright, dimmed the light as a whole, but let’s see if I can change the hue to something less glaring…” Pidge said around the wrench she had wedged between her teeth. “Red light is supposed to be a good transition… or you guys like purple, so that must suit your eyes well… ooh, you know what would be a fun thing to add? Huh, yeah, I bet I could, with this…”
Ulaz was just about to ask her about her progress – he quite liked her voice, especially the excited lilt she got when she was talking about her projects – when the door flew open and Coran was there barking that their time was up. He froze, wondering what the others would think of their positioning, but Pidge didn’t seem to care.
“What… are you doing?” Allura asked, poking her head around the door to look.
“I haven’t the faintest.” Ulaz admitted, still a little uncertain how they had ended up like this in the first place. “The Green Paladin scaled me like a tree and told me to stand still.”
“Adding a few color settings to the light in here, just for fun.” Pidge said around her wrench. “Also a disco-ball-type function. Gimme three more minutes to set up the control panel.”
“You had your seven!” Lance told her.
“Fine, then we can just use the regular lightswitch and get a random option, like heathens!” Pidge huffed, closing up the ceiling panel and shimmying down her bewildered Galra step-stool. She paused for just a tick when their faces were level once more, shooting him a wink and leaning in to press a quick peck to his lips again before hopping to the ground. Smiling to himself, he handed her back her tools he had been holding and the two of them joined the circle once more.