Chapter Text
“Modulation arguments; that’s how your mother and I met.”
One little comment made by Pidge’s father- that’s all it had taken to throw Hunk’s mind into free fall.
We’re just friends, the little voice in his head kept repeating, again and again, ever since Samuel Holt had made that remark, nearly a week ago now.
You never even thought about her in that way until he said it. That means that all these emotions and thoughts about… It means this is temporary. Intrusive thoughts.
“They’ll pass,” Hunk muttered quietly into the early morning darkness, to no-one but himself. He pulled his blanket up underneath his chin, wrapping it around his body a little tighter to keep old the ship’s steely cold, and squeezed his eyes shut, willing himself to sleep.
—
They did not, in fact, pass. Even worse for Hunk, they soon encroached into the forefront of his mind, occupying most of his waking thoughts, and even a few off his nighttime thoughts, too. Where as before Hunk had always loved going to work every morning, he was really starting to dread it. Being stuck in the laboratory for nearly seven hours a day, with just Pidge for company for most of that time, meant that he had no way of avoiding her, and thus no way to get the thoughts about her- about them- out of his head. Occasionally, Sam, Matt, Allura, Lotor, or one of the other Paladins would pop into their shared workspace for a chat, to ask a question or- if the particular visitor was called Lance- talk their ears off about something utterly inane for just under one Earth hour, but for the rest of them time, it was just Pidge, himself and a whole load of silence. It was uncomfortable, to say the least, and Pidge was onto him.
“Okay, what’s going on, Hunk?” she had blurted out, slapping a file so dense she could barely lift it down onto her side of the desk. “You’ve been acting weird for days now. Have I said something to upset you? Is this about those peanut satay you made me? Because I told you! Peanut butter? Fine. Peanuts? No way am I eating that.”
She thought this was about the dinner she had refused . Hunk exhaled a laugh through his nose, scratching his cheek to obscure the fact that he was blushing.
“It’s- It isn’t about that,” he chuckled, hands hovering over his keyboard again, though his mind was too distracted for him to even think about continuing the coding he was working on. Shit- he knew that what little work he had managed to get done was probably full of errors, due to his preoccupation with everything Pidge had done or said that morning. He had, at one point, found himself transfixed on how cute she looked when she scrunched her nose up as she habitually chewed the end of her pen, deep in thought.
“So what’s the problem, Hunk? Because I- If I’ve upset you, then I’m sorry. I don’t know what I’ve done wrong, but…” Oh, quiznak. Was she tearing up? He couldn’t take it if she started to cry. “Dude, you’re like my best friend and- I…”
“I have to go!” Hunk announced. Their eyes meeting briefly, his suspicion was confirmed. Hunk had never seen Pidge cry, and he was glad of it, because she was absolutely killing him right now. Eyes sparkling with tears and the most betrayed little look on her face, he felt like the biggest asshole in the universe as he rushed out of his chair and gathered his belongings. “I need to speak to Shiro about the thing. Maintenance. On the teladuv.”
One of her eyebrows raised, Pidge’s expression turned to one of interest, and Hunk could’ve kicked himself. Right- of course she’d want to know about why Shiro was inquiring into the ship’s upkeep.
“It’s nothing important, Pidge,” he said, trying to sound casual about it all. She didn’t seem convinced in the slightest, but she didn’t press him any further.
“Right,” she said, placing her hands under her armpits and looking away. Nervous- that was another one of her mannerisms that he’d picked up on as of late. She always did that when she was nervous or unsure. “Guess I’ll… Yeah, okay. I will catch you later then?”
He nodded and turned away, heading for the door, ignoring the fact that he just wanted to wrap her in the tightest of bear hugs and tell her that she shouldn’t doubt herself- that the awkwardness between them wasn’t anyone’s fault except his. Still, he couldn’t. Hunk knew that, if he did, she might feel or hear how his heart was racing inside of his ribcage.
And then what would he do? Admit that he-
Hands in the pockets of his cargo shorts, he sighed as he turned the corner and Pidge was out of sight. His mind cleared, and, for the first time for weeks, he had something resembling a coherent thought.
Man, I really need to speak to Shiro.