Chapter Text
“Are you sure you don’t wanna head down to the carnival?” Lance asked. “I’m pretty sure the Swathian Meerakeet won’t try to eat us.”
In the chilly, darkened computer lab, Pidge’s fingers flew across the keypad. The lenses of her round glasses reflected the glow from her monitor. “I have work to do, Lance,” she said tersely, her eyes never leaving the stream of data on her screen. There was a sadness in her posture, and a frown upon her lips that had been etched there ever since the Atlas had departed from Earth’s orbit.
Lance’s enthusiasm for the carnival dimmed when he saw how gloomy Pidge looked. “Right. Well, I could stay here with you, keep you company if you want.”
Pidge stopped typing and looked up at him in surprise.
“Aren’t you going to be taking Allura to the carnival?” The way she emphasized Allura’s name made it sound like an accusation. But what wrong had Allura done? Or was it Lance himself who had done something wrong? He caught Pidge’s gaze and saw the depth of the sadness in her eyes. Somehow, he knew her mood was his fault, but he wasn’t sure how or why.
“No,” Lance began. Of course, Pidge didn’t know what had happened. He hadn’t told her. The wound was still fresh, still too painful to talk about. Pidge looked away from him suddenly, as if she had caught a reflection of her own sorrow in his eyes. “Allura’s not feeling well today,” he said truthfully. He had not been able to tell her the whole story just yet, but he wanted to, desperately.
“Maybe you can win her a prize,” said Pidge, returning to her typing. “Get her something sparkly.”
“I won’t be trying to win Allura any prizes today...or any day,” Lance admitted.
“Why not?” Pidge looked up at him again. He knew he had to tell her the truth.
“Um, remember how I took Allura out on that date right before launch day?”
“Yeah. What about it?”
“That was my first and last date with the princess.” Lance felt his eyes water a little. “She doesn’t like me back—I mean she likes me, but only as a friend—and uh, not as a boyfriend.” He turned away from Pidge, not wanting her to see his tears if he lost control and started crying again. He had been doing a lot of that lately. “Look, if you don’t want to go—“ he broke off. His cheeks were damp. He closed his eyes and bowed his head.
Lance was surprised when he felt a pair of slender arms envelop his torso in a tight hug. Pidge buried her face in Lance’s chest as she embraced him and murmured, “I’m sorry.” Her voice quavered. “I—I didn’t know.”
Her held her close. “I’m the one who should be apologizing, Pidge. I’m sorry if I hurt you by neglecting our friendship lately.”
Suddenly embarrassed by her spontaneous display of affection, Pidge pulled away from his embrace and began babbling. “You know, there aren’t just sparkly things you can win at the carnival. There are cuddly things, like stuffed animals, and there’s an arcade, and rides, and all kinds of exotic space food. Besides, I don’t really need to finish this project right now. I would much rather go to the carnival with you than stay here and work on this boring old program—“
Lance felt warmed by a sudden spark of hope, anticipating a day of fun with her. “So you’ll go with me?”
“Of course! I just said that, didn’t I? I really want one of those stuffed animals. I’d love to have one of those green lions to cuddle. Maybe—“ she looked up at him shyly, her cheeks slightly pink. “Maybe you could win me one of those?”
“Yeah! Yeah, okay.” Lance smiled down at her, his sorrow finally melting away at her suggestion. “Winning prizes is kinda my specialty. I am a sharpshooter, after all.”
Pidge’s smile lit up the darkened room. There was a softness in her expression that made Lance want to win every stuffed lion in the universe for her.
“I pulled some strings and got each of you ten complimentary Clear Day tokens,” Coran said as he handed out the little discs. “Use them for games, foods, rides--“
“Where’s Allura?” Keith asked.
“She’s going to stay back and rest. She said she wasn’t feeling well,” Lance explained.
Keith frowned, clearly worried about the princess. “I thought she’d be here with you,” he said coolly.
“No,” Lance replied. “If you’re worried about her, maybe you should go back and check on her. As for me, I’m heading to the arcade to win a prize for a certain little lady.” He slung an arm around Pidge’s shoulders to emphasize his meaning. Pidge gazed up at him with a soft smile. And when Lance returned her smile she blushed and glanced downward.
Hunk gaped at his two best friends in astonishment. “Whoa! Is this like a—a date situation?!” He asked, unable to conceal his glee. Lance had a suspicion that there would be some teasing to deal with later on.
A wide-eyed Pidge looked up at Hunk and then Lance with her mouth agape. Lance felt his own face heat up when he thought about what Hunk was implying, but he didn’t deny it. He smiled nervously at them.
Keith smirked at both of them. Just as he was about to remark on this new bit of information, Pidge interrupted him.
“Come on, Lance,” she grabbed him by the hand. “The arcade awaits us!” She led him toward the gaming booths.
“Just remember why we came here in the first place,” Keith called after them. “We’re supposed to provide security for the event.”
As Pidge tugged at his hand, Lance heard Hunk exclaim, “Oh man! They are so cute together! I knew it was gonna happen, sooner or later.”
A date situation? Lance’s mind raced. It wasn’t exactly what he had in mind when he asked her to go to the carnival with him, but Pidge was holding his hand and smiling so brightly she was positively luminous. He couldn’t remember if he had ever seen her looking so happy. Everything was happening so fast, he could hardly process it, so he just went with the flow, returning Pidge’s smile with an genuine one of his own. A date situation, huh? Well, he would make the most of that.
Lance gave Pidge’s fingers a squeeze. “Look, Pidge! There’s a booth with stuffed animals. They have all the lions, although I’m pretty sure Voltron doesn’t have a purple lion...”
“Wanna play?” asked the game’s operator. “All you gotta do is throw one of these rings onto one of them sticks. Win one for your special someone?” He winked at them. Pidge met Lance’s eyes for a moment, then blushed and looked away once more.
“You got any Green Lions?” Lance asked. “This lovely lady is the Green Lion’s Paladin and I’d like to win her one of those.” He nodded at Pidge. She smiled at him, her eyes sparkling.
“Oh, is that right?” said the game operator with a sly grimace. “Let me see. I happen to have a one-of-a-kind, collector’s edition plush of a green mechanical flying feline.”
“Perfect!” Lance exclaimed. “How much? They only gave us ten of these token thingies.”
“Oh, wonderful! Ten tokens is exactly how much it costs to play the game!” the game operator replied.
“Did these rings shrink?” Lance asked as they seemed to diminish in his grasp.
“Oh, no, friend,” said the game operator. “They just look smaller in your strong, muscular hands.”
He heard Pidge snicker beside him.
Lance made all of his tosses, one by one. He missed every single time.
“Oh! So close. Care to try again?” asked the game’s operator.
“This game is rigged!” Lance complained. “And I don’t have any more tokens.”
Pidge handed him all of her tokens. “You’re trying to win a prize for me anyway. Take them.”
Lance began to perspire, afraid of missing again. He didn’t want to waste all of Pidge’s tokens and look like a total loser in front of her.
Lance, to his great embarrassment, missed every single toss.
“It’s okay,” she said quietly as she took his arm. “Come on, I know how we can get more tokens.”
“Okay, but we should use them for food or rides, not this stupid rigged game.” He was angry at himself for being conned so easily and losing all of their money.
“We’ll get enough for food, rides, and games. You’re going to win that lion for me. Come on!”
She led him towards the souvenir photo booth where she had spotted Matt and her parents. It lifted his spirits a little that she believed in him so much. He let her lead him toward the booth.
“Dad, I ran out of tokens,” Pidge said in a sugary sweet voice. Pidge was obviously trying to manipulate her father into giving her more to spend.
“Well, that’s what happens when you waste it all on--“ Sam stopped in mid sentence when he saw his daughter holding Lance’s hand. His eyebrows rose towards his hairline. “Oh! Hello there, Lance.”
“Uh...hi,” Lance said awkwardly.
Colleen Holt was staring at her daughter with the same shocked expression as Sam. Great. Now her parents knew that Lance didn’t have enough money to take their daughter out for a proper good time at the carnival. He really was the biggest loser.
“Don’t tell me you already spent all of Lance’s money, too,” Sam teased.
“Dad!” Pidge glared at her father. Lance was silently wishing that a fissure would suddenly open up and this planet would swallow him.
“Okay,” Sam chuckled. “How much do you need?”
“How much do you have?”
Just as Sam was about to give her a handful of tokens, Colleen seized them.
“Not so fast, young lady,” Colleen interrupted them with a wicked gleam in her eyes. “You’ll have to earn them. I want a family picture. Your date included, of course.” She gave Lance a knowing look, and he felt as if his face had caught on fire. Great, just great. Now her parents thought there was something going on between them. He shifted his weight nervously.
Matt’s shrewd gaze seemed to be sizing him up, but unlike Pidge’s parents, he said nothing. Lance felt beads of sweat forming on his brow.
“Fine. We’ll take the picture, but I pick the costume,” Pidge demanded.
“I get to add one accessory and you have to smile,” Colleen replied.
“Half-smile,” Pidge argued.
“You’ve got yourself a deal.”
A few minutes later, Pidge had a large cache of Clear Day tokens and Lance found himself posing for a costumed portrait with Pidge and her family.
“Say ‘Clear Day’!” exclaimed the photographer.
“Clear Day!” They responded.
“I want another picture,” Colleen insisted. “I have to have one of you with Lance. You know,” she gushed, “this is her very first real date!”
Matt had his arms folded and was still glaring at Lance. Pidge looked nervously from Lance to her brother and back again and came to a conclusion.
“Sorry, Mom, but we’ve got to go do Paladin stuff!” Pidge exclaimed. She hastily grabbed Lance’s hand once more and led him back towards the arcade.
When they were far enough away, Pidge gave his hand a squeeze. “About what just happened...My family is brilliant and everything, but they can be a bit—“
“Embarrassing? It’s okay. I like them. They actually remind me a lot of my own family. I know they really enjoyed humiliating me in front of Allura—“
And then Lance knew he had said the wrong thing because Pidge let go of his hand and looked away. “Pidge?”
She didn’t answer. She just kept walking toward the arcade, and even though his legs were longer, he had to hurry to keep up with her.
When they were halfway there, she stopped abruptly and he looked at her. She had pushed her glasses up onto the top of her head and was wiping her eyes with her palms.
“Pidge?” Silence.
“Hey, are you okay?” He persisted.
She sniffled. “I’m fine,” she said in a small voice. “Just had a bit of space dust in my eye,” she said unconvincingly.
Allura. He shouldn’t have mentioned Allura. Lance felt like an idiot. He had taken Allura to meet his family on their first—and only—date, which had been a disaster for him. He poured his heart out to her that night and discovered that she didn’t feel the same way. It was the worst night of his life.
And Pidge had been crying because he mentioned it. He was finally beginning to understand why she was upset.
“I’m going to win you that Green Lion, you know,” he assured her.
“It’s not that big of a deal,” she said dejectedly. “Anyway, I know you’d rather be here with her—“
“No, I wouldn’t. Pidge, I’m here with you because I asked you. Remember?”
“As a friend. I mean, this isn’t a real date, no matter what my family and our friends think. You didn’t mean for it to be a real date. It’s just that I was having so much fun...you know, pretending...” The tears that had welled up at the corners of her eyes spilled down her cheeks. “I’m pathetic. I know you could never—“
“Never what?”
“Like me that way. The way you like her.”
Although they were surrounded by the noise of the mechanical rides, the din of the crowd, and the cries of the vendors hawking their wares, there was a deafening silence between them.
For a moment he felt as if they were the only two people in the universe.
Lance was unable to articulate what he felt for her. It would take time to find the correct words, and he desperately wanted to get this right. They stood there staring at each other, saying nothing, until Lance’s stomach growled loudly.
Pidge sighed. Then she sensibly grabbed Lance’s forearm and pulled him toward the food vendors.
“Pidge! The arcade is the other way!”
“I know. But you won’t be able to win that Green Lion for me on an empty stomach. Come on, let’s get something to eat.”
After much searching they had finally found a table for two in a quiet corner of the food vendors’s area of the fairgrounds. Lance insisted upon carrying the tray with their lunch and cold drinks. He set the tray down and dashed to her side of the table to pull out a chair for her.
“Lance, you don’t have to—“
“It’s what a gentleman does when he’s out on a date with a lovely young lady,” he replied. Oh yeah, that was smooth, he thought.
Pidge looked down at her battle-scarred Paladin armor and back up at him. “Where is she?” she asked, self-consciously trying to smooth down her unruly short hair.
“Well, right now the lovely young lady I’m referring to just happens to be sitting at this table, having a nice lunch with the gorgeous man of her dreams,” Lance replied with a wink. He leaned on one elbow and gave her a flirtatious look. Pidge blushed and tried not to laugh. She bit her lip, but was unable to suppress her smile.
“I guess you are kind of cute,” she admitted.
“In a creepy, hideous kind of way?” he suggested. She giggled.
“No, actually, in a charming, handsome kind of way,” she murmured, not meeting his gaze.
Lance just sat there for the longest time with a goofy smile on his face while she ate.
After she finished chewing another bite, Pidge said, “Your food is getting cold.” That’s when he realized how long he had been staring at her.
They ate in silence for a while.
“We should go on some of the rides before we run out of tokens again. I was thinking maybe the Ferris wheel—“ he said, breaking the long pause.
“That would be nice,” she agreed.
“Pidge, was it true, about what your mom said earlier?” he asked.
“About—?”
“About this being your first real date, because if it is, I’m honored. I’m also really surprised.”
“What’s surprising about it? I spent most of my teenaged years disguised as a boy at the Garrison or in space fighting in a war right by your side, watching you flirt with every cute alien girl in sight I might add.” She didn’t say that last part with any malice, only stated it as a matter of fact, but Lance was still stung by the truth of her words.
“Hey, it’s not like I didn’t notice that you’re a cute girl too,” he argued, trying to sound convincing.
“When was that? When you were flirting with Allura? Or Plaxum? Or Nyma? Or all those gorgeous alien girls you were always taking selfies with? Or—“
Lance could hear the anger rising in her voice, and it finally occurred to him that he had unintentionally hurt her again and again over the years. He felt a sudden stab of guilt.
“That’s in the past. Anyway, I thought you were really cute when I saw that photo—“
“Which photo?”
“The one you took with Matt when you were in middle school. You were actually wearing a dress and had long beautiful hair and—“
“You thought Matt was me and that I was his girlfriend,” she argued.
“Yeah. I’m kinda slow on the uptake. But I did think of you as the hot girlfriend.”
Pidge snickered into her cold drink. She took a sip, and then mumbled, “Goofball.”
Lance shrugged. “When I discovered you were the girl in the photo, I just assumed you must have been the girl that broke all the guys’ hearts back in eighth grade.”
“No,” Pidge shook her head. “All the boys ignored me, or worse they bullied me. And don’t say that boys do that when they like a girl because they hated me. They stole my stuff or broke my things on purpose and called me names all the time. Every time I raised my hand to speak in class, they made fun of me. And the girls were just as bad, maybe worse. Some of them would talk about parties and sleepovers right in front of me just to make sure I knew that they were having fun and I wasn’t invited. Excluding people is how girls bully each other. It’s more subtle, but just as hurtful.” Pidge said this stoically, as if it didn’t matter anymore, but Lance could see that she was just putting up a tough facade the way she always did.
“But why would they do that? You’re cute and funny, and a really fun person to hang out with. You also happen to be one of the smartest people I have ever met and—-“
“That was the problem. Smart girls usually aren’t the popular girls,” she replied. “I never tried to hide my intelligence or play dumb just to get the boys to like me.” There were unshed tears welling at the corners of her eyes once again.
Lance took her hand. “Pidge,” he said in a soothing voice. “You have friends now. You have friends that love you very much, and this friend in particular thinks you’re pretty amazing. I would never want you to pretend to be less than who you are.”
She gave him a watery smile. “Thanks. I think you’re pretty amazing too.”
Lance’s heart gave a little flutter. He couldn’t stop smiling for the rest of their meal.
After lunch when they strolled along the arcade, Pidge tugged on Lance’s arm and pointed, “Look, there’s a shooting gallery. We didn’t see that one before.”
“Hey! They have stuffed lions, too. Look, there’s Green!” Lance exclaimed. “That other guy said it was a one-of-a-kind collector’s edition, didn’t he?”
“Yeah, not only did we waste our money on that rigged game, the dude lied to us,” Pidge added.
Lance grinned at her. “Well, if this one isn’t rigged, I am going to win you that Green Lion. Come on!”
The shooting game was a difficult one but it did seem to be based purely on skill, not chance. Lance and Pidge watched as the other players who were there before them took their turns. Most of them lost, but there was one winner right before Lance had his chance to shoot. They smiled at the small boy who walked away happily clutching a Yellow Lion that his father had won for him.
Lance picked up the light rifle and got the feel of the trigger mechanism. It was a simple, non-lethal particle beam shooter with barely enough firepower to knock down the small moving targets. It was going to be all about anticipating where the target would be rather than where it was at any given moment. He took a deep breath. You can do this, he told himself.
He made quick work of it, taking down a multitude of moving targets in a few seconds. A spontaneous round of cheers and applause broke out from the spectators who had gathered around to watch a Paladin shoot.
“That was amazing!” Pidge shouted. “Let’s hear it for the Galaxy’s Greatest Sharpshooter!” Lance nearly toppled over when Pidge pounced on him to embrace him enthusiastically. “I knew you could do it!”
“Would you like a Blue Lion or would you prefer Red?” the shooting gallery operator asked.
“Oh! I would like a Green Lion, please. It’s for my girlfriend,” Lance said, just letting the words slip out without thinking.
Pidge looked up at him in astonishment. “Thank you,” she said quietly. “I really love it.” Pidge hugged the plush toy when the alien handed it to her, and the look of admiration that Pidge gave him made Lance realize that this was probably the best date he had ever been on, and all they had really done so far was talk and hold hands.
“Come on, let’s go check out the rides at this carnival.”
The seats on the Ferris wheel were narrow enough that Pidge ended up sitting very close to him. Lance didn’t mind. He stretched and slipped one long arm around her shoulders, pulling her even closer to his side. Pidge looked at him askance as she held her stuffed lion in her lap.
“Is this okay?” he whispered.
She eyed him peripherally and grinned at him. “You do this all the time, and you’ve never asked permission before. You even do it while we’re playing Monsters and Mana.”
“Do what?”
“Drape yourself all over me like the cat-boy that you are,” she teased.
He grinned at her. “Well...I guess Pike’s been trying to put the moves on Meklavar, because—you know—he thinks she’s the cutest axe fighter in the three kingdoms.”
Pidge rolled her eyes. “They aren’t even the same species. But I guess that never stopped you before.”
“Ow! I’m wounded!” She laughed at him.
“It’s true. You’re the biggest flirt I’ve ever met, which is why I don’t know if I can take any of this seriously.”
“What do you mean?”
She studied him for a moment, then looked into his eyes as the Ferris Wheel rose higher. “Let’s just say that Meklavar isn’t the kind of dwarf that Pike can have his way with and then abandon. She doesn’t do casual relationships. With her it’s all or nothing.”
Lance’s heart was hammering in his chest. He knew they were approaching a moment of truth. He stroked her soft, thick hair, gently slipping a wayward lock behind one ear. “Pike doesn’t do casual relationships either. He’s a long-term commitment kind of guy.” His thumb gently caressed her cheek.
“Really?” she asked, barely above a whisper.
“Yeah,” he breathed. “When their quest finally comes to an end, Pike would like to settle down in a nice village with his cute axe-fighter wife, and you know, maybe raise a few kittens.”
Pidge’s eyes sparkled with glee as she leaned closer to him. “I think Meklavar would like that.” Their faces were mere inches apart, and Lance was entranced by how beautiful her golden brown eyes were. He was suddenly overwhelmed by a desperate desire to kiss her.
There was a sound of grinding metal and a loud snap followed by shouts from the crowd below and screams from the riders above. The Ferris wheel creaked forward until it halted with a lurch that nearly jostled them out of their car. Pidge’s stuffed Green Lion slid from her lap and plummeted to the ground a hundred meters below them. Lance and Pidge clung to each other in a momentary panic.
Pidge tried to steady her breathing. “We can use our jet packs to rocket away from here to a better vantage point,” she said, thinking aloud. She was shaking.
“Y-Yeah, then we can see who needs help,” Lance stammered.
They carefully wriggled out of their car. Even the slightest movement made it rock precariously. They helped to steady each other as they stood upon their little car’s seat. Clinging to each other, they rocketed into the air. They saw that a car near the top of the wheel had slipped out of place. The Drazani woman and child who were trapped in the tilting car were in danger of falling to their deaths at any moment. Other passengers were crying for help. “I’ll carry the mom. You get the little girl!” Lance shouted over the roar of the terrified crowd.
In moments Lance had the Drazani woman securely in his arms, and Pidge carried the tiny Drazani child in hers.
“Hold tight,” he heard Pidge tell the child.
They floated to the ground to set the mother and child down safely. The assembled crowd broke into enthusiastic applause, shouting “Voltron! Voltron!”
While they were barraged by a sudden burst of flash photography from bystanders and tourists, the first responders rushed to the scene. They declared that the two rescued Drazani were unharmed.
Lance and Pidge rocketed into the air, rescuing the other riders one at a time. Most of them were small children that Pidge could carry with ease. Lance rocketed the adults to the ground with little difficulty, except for one large male who was heavier than he appeared to be. Thankfully he didn’t drop him.
When all the passengers had been carried to safety, Lance and Pidge were swarmed by Drazani who wanted their autographs or another photo opportunity. It took determined effort to slip away from the crowd that hailed them as heroes. Normally Lance would have basked in the limelight of such well-earned praise, but not today. He just wanted to find a quiet place to continue the conversation he was having with Pidge. He had wanted to kiss her so badly.
“My lion!” Pidge was distressed. “It fell when the Ferris wheel broke down. I don’t see it anywhere. After all you went through to win it for me—“
“It’s okay, Pidge. We can go back to the shooting gallery and I’ll win you another one.”
“Excuse me, Miss Paladin—?” an elderly Drazani woman said from behind them. “Did you lose this?”
“My lion!” Pidge exclaimed. “Thank you so much!” The elderly female handed her the plush toy.
“We are the ones that should be thanking you,” said the old Drazani man beside her. “That was our daughter and granddaughter you rescued when the accident occurred. We are forever in your debt, Paladins. This will be a Clear Day long remembered by many generations to come. Our grandchildren’s grandchildren will be talking about it!”
The old woman took her mate’s hand and gave it a little squeeze. “You won a Swathian Meerakeet plushie for me at the Clear Day shooting gallery when we were their age, don’t you remember?”
“Of course I remember,” said the old man. “It was our first date. I tried to kiss you when we were on this very same ride.”
“As I recall, it broke down back then, too,” said his wife. Her husband chuckled.
Lance held Pidge’s hand as they watched the old couple totter away as the planet’s sun dipped closer to the horizon. It would be nightfall soon and Clear Day would come to an end.
“I have a few tokens left,” Pidge announced when the elderly couple had disappeared into the crowd. “And I know exactly what I’m going to spend them on.”
Pidge led them back to the arcade where she tried her luck at games of chance, first winning a sparkly hat for Allura. (“I really think she’s gonna dig it,” she told Lance.) And then she won a rather nice insulated drink container for Lance.
“Pidge, I already have a Galaxy Garrison coffee mug that suits me just fine. What’s so special about this one?”
“You’ll see! I’m getting it personalized.” Pidge was drawing a colorful design with a stylus on a holographic tablet. When she was done the vendor printed the design on the mug. She presented the finished product to Lance.
He grinned from ear-to-ear when he saw it. It was personalized with his name on one side and the words GALAXY’S GREATEST SHARPSHOOTER opposite it, written in bold, sparkling letters.
Lance hugged her after that.
“I had a great time today,” she said as they walked hand-in-hand towards the exit gates of the fairgrounds. “Thank you for inviting me to go to the festival with you.”
“I had a great time, too,” he replied. “I’ll have to think of something really amazing to top this for our second date.”
“Our second date? So you were serious back there when you accidentally called me your girlfriend?”
Lance chuckled. “Yeah, I was being serious. I meant what I said about Pike and Meklavar, too.”
“We should play Monsters and Mana more often then,” said Pidge.
“Yeah. Maybe they could go on a first date that’s as amazing as ours.”
Pidge grinned at him. “Is that so they will have sentimental stories to tell their grand kittens?”
Lance chuckled at that and realized that the words of that old song were true. On a clear day you really can see forever.
The one thing Lance was certain of was that from that day forth he wanted all of his forevers to be with Pidge.