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“What?”
Lance looks like someone just smacked him in the face with something hard and metallic. Pidge is honestly considering it, if only to escape the mounting awkwardness of this conversation.
“Nothing. Nevermind, just forget I said anything,” she grunted, turning to walk away. At least she was coming off as grumpy rather than hurt. She hoped.
“No seriously, Pidge,” Lance protested, following after her. “I’m not kidding. What?”
She sighed as his hand came down to rest on her shoulder. Pivoting, she fixed him with a glare. “You heard me, Lance.” She was very much regretting telling him in the middle of the hall near their rooms. Ever since Hunk had made them an adapter to play their videogames they’d had weekly game nights, usually staying up far past everyone else went to bed.
Still, despite the fact that everyone else was fast asleep, Pidge felt like this was the wrong setting. Mostly because there was a very real chance that this conversation was going to devolve into shouting.
“I must have heard wrong. Because for a second there I thought you said you liked me!”
And that was why.
In her defense, he’d just looked so sleepy-cute, hands fluttering and eyes dopey as he complained about the boss level. His hair was sticking up at odd angles, getting longer, long enough that she was sure he was going to be begging Coran to cut it for him soon. With his stupidly pretty blue eyes, and his ridiculously kissable lips, the words had just slipped out of her mouth before she could think better of it.
Pidge’s ears burned, and she couldn’t quite look him in the eye. “Yeah. So what?”
“There’s no way,” Lance blurted out, his hand on her shoulder the only thing that was keeping her from fleeing to her room and not coming out for days. He seemed genuinely confused as he looked her over, his mouth a tight line. “There’s absolutely no way. ”
“Yeah, you’re making that pretty clear,” she grumbled, shifting awkwardly. Leave it to Lance to be an idiot even with his rejection. He probably didn't mean to rub it in, he was too sweet for that. He was just really dumb. But it still hurt.
“What? No! No, I don’t mean there’s no way we could like…” he trailed off, seeming uncertain of exactly what he was trying to say. He rubbed at the back of his neck, thinking of his next words for once.
She scrunched up her nose, wishing he'd just shut up. Shut up before she did something stupid like start crying in front of him.
“ I just mean there’s no way that you could like me!”
She blinked.
Okay, so he wasn't only dumb.
He was confusing too.
“What?”
Lance’s eyes searched her face, but she couldn't manage to look at him. Not right now when she felt like her emotions were way too close to the surface.
“Pidge,” he said, his voice somehow making her look back at him. “You're like… way way outta my league!”
Unexpected.
Her mind shuffles to analyze this new information, but it’s just not making any sense. In all of the possible outcomes of telling Lance about her feelings, this had never even been an option. It was like spending hours and hours combing through code for a mistake in variable scope, only to find that she’d just missed a closing parenthesis.
“Uuuuh?? Wha?” she said. An incredibly intelligent response, given the situation.
“It's true! I mean, just look at you! You're cute, and wicked smart, and you’re super badass! Like, you could literally kick my ass and then step on me and I’d thank you for it!”
“I don’t know, I just might if you keep being stupid,” she said, breathless and just a little bit overwhelmed. How was this even possible? She felt like she was short circuiting. System error, blue screen of death, time for a system reboot.
Lance breathed out a disbelieving laugh.
“So, this means you do like me back then, right?” she clarified, trying desperately to catch up with the situation after the whirlwind of emotions she’d just gone through.
Lance slapped a hand over his heart, eyes wide and mouth open in a gasp. “Pidge! Pigeon . Katie whatever your middle name is Holt, Paladin of the Green Lion and mighty arm of Voltron! How could you possibly doubt my affections!” He grinned then, his eyes softening. The way he was looking at her made her breath catch. It was the way he’d looked at the rain on one planet, the way he looked at the dazzling nebula they'd flown through a week or two ago. The way he looked at his lion sometimes. “Of course I like you.”
Her face felt red hot, and even covering it in her hands couldn't help ease the embarrassment and excitement and nerves all warring in her chest.
“Oh my god,” she muttered, voice muffled.
“Just think how I feel,” Lance replied fondly. Oh boy, she was screwed. She was so entirely boned, because she'd never heard his voice sound so warm before, and it was doing terrible wonderful melty things in her chest.
“Hey, move your hands for a minute?”
“Why?” she groaned, parting her fingers to peek. She definitely didn't trust the request. This was Lance after all. He probably just wanted to gloat over the blush on her face.
Though the way his face was darkening was pretty suspect, and very interesting. Might be good counter-blackmail.
“Because I wanna kiss you,” he said, like it was obvious. Like those five words hadn't just kicked her heartbeat into overdrive and stolen her breath.
How in the hell did he expect her to move her hands now?!
“Heh, cute,” he chuckled, moving in closer. “I didn't know you could make a sound like that. What would you call it, like a squeak or a yelp? Maybe a- mmph!”
Pidge pulled him down by his jacket collar and kissed him. If asked, she could blame it on a need to shut him up. It definitely had nothing to do with the way she’d been staring at his lips for months wishing she could kiss them.
He hummed against her lips, warm and pleased, and it made her feel tingly and good.
“Oh. Oh wow,” he breathed when they managed to pull apart, eyes wide and cheeks definitely red now. Pidge smirked and, before he could say something either stupid or sappy, pulled him back in.
And when she finally let him go, he went nowhere, leaning in of his own volition, kissing her again soft and sweet and even a little bit shy.
“So,” Lance said when she was done kissing him, blissed smile on his face. “You wanna date me, pretty lady?”
Biting back a smile she managed to contort her expression into a look of bewilderment.
“What?” she did her best to mirror the tone he’d used earlier, shocked and confused, disbelieving.
For a split second Lance looked comically confused, and Pidge couldn’t help but laugh. “Your face,” she cackled, sliding her hands up onto his arms.
“You jerk!” he laughed, catching on. “ Christ Pidge, you scared the crap outta me!”
She laughed harder, leaning against him, and he held her, shaking his head in mock disdain.
When she finally managed to get herself together their faces were much closer than before. Her smile grew softer, sliding into something more admiring than mocking.
“Yeah,” she said softly, squeezing his arms.
Lance grins triumphantly. “Ah, so she admits it! You are a jerk!”
Rolling her eyes, Pidge shook her head. “No dummy. I was answering your question.”
Lance’s smile could have lit up the whole castle.
“Oh,” he said, voice soft. “Heh. Good answer.”
She stood up on her toes, a clear invitation, and this time when they kissed she could feel his grin against her lips.