Dawn

Lance yawned. “Aren’t you done yet?”

“Stop complaining,” Pidge muttered. “If we don’t fix this security loophole, we could be in for serious trouble if anyone tries to hack the Castleship defences.”

“I know, but all I’m doing is standing here and handing you stuff! Don’t you have a robot that could do this?” Lance hadn’t understood most of what Pidge was doing, and while she did (as always) make him feel pretty stupid, he didn’t want to give her the idea that he was enjoying their time alone together. Because, well, he was. And he didn’t know how to feel about it.

“Have you considered that maybe I could use some company when I’m down here all night?” Pidge snapped, then quickly looked away. “Even if it’s someone who never knows when to shut up, it’s something,” she added quickly.

“You mean you don’t find my banter entertaining?” Lance tried for a cocky grin, but it didn’t seem right. That stuff never worked on Pidge. It only made him want to try harder to impress her, though… was everything he thought he knew about romance wrong? Should he have paid attention in physics so he could tell her something she’d actually find interesting?

“You complain a lot,” Pidge said bluntly, “But I guess for the most part you’re a nice distraction. Now, hand me the red cable.”

A nice distraction. Was that a compliment? Lance silently ran her words through his head as he handed her the part.

“Is that it?”

Pidge examined her work with the circuitry and looked over the status report feeding into her laptop. “Everything looks good. I’ll just seal this panel up and double-check with the main controls, and we can call it a night.”

“You mean call it a morning,” Lance grumbled, remembering instantly that Pidge had woken him up at 1 AM for a helping hand. “I bet Shiro will still expect us to meet up in the morning for training exercises.”

“Well, I’m sure he’ll recognize that this was important, considering out run-ins with security problems in the past.” Pidge sealed the panel with a small, screwdriver-like device that somehow didn’t need to actually contact the material to work. She closed her laptop and stood up, stretching her arms. “Okay, let’s go up to the main deck and check how things look from there.”

Lance stood up and stretched his hands to his feet. When he leaned back up, he noticed that Pidge’s hair had become unruly, with strands falling in front of her face. He resisted the urge to brush it to the side and looked away.

“Sounds good. I hope that helping you with this wins me some brownie points with Allura…” he grinned.

Pidge elbowed him sharply in the stomach. “Keep it in your pants for once, will you?” She muttered, pacing for the stairway back to the central controls. “Come on and hurry up.”

Lance wondered if maybe, just maybe, she was a little jealous when he talked about Allura. It was probably wishful thinking, but he really wanted to believe that she cared a little bit.

Following Pidge, the two approached the central controls and activated them, taking care not to make any noise that would wake the others up.

“This will only take a minute,” Pidge said quietly, leaning in to take a closer look at the diagnosis she was running. She had to stand on the tips of her toes to reach some of the panels, which Lance found kind of cute.

Pidge managed not to activate the whole network of holographic screens and displays, instead visualizing the information she needed in a small panel just adjacent to her.

“Okay, we’re clear. Everything looks airtight to me.”

“Awesome!”

“Shh!” Pidge gently punched Lance in the side. “It’s barely daybreak, remember?”

“Sorry,” Lance whispered. “Hey, since we’re up, there’s something you should see. I noticed it last night when I got up early for a snack.”

Pidge looked curious. “What is it?”

Lance grinned. “I’m gonna surprise you. Come with me, it’s by the window at the prow of the Castleship.”

Whatever hesitance Pidge typically had about any of Lance’s ideas, her curiosity got the better of her, just as he had hoped. “Okay. Lead the way.”

Pidge followed lance to the large window in the very front of the ship, not far from the central controls but with a far better view of what was directly outside. The ship had docked just outside the stratosphere of a large, mostly-barren planet.

Pidge looked at Lance and frowned. “I’m aware of the planet, Lance. What about it?”

“Not the planet.” Lance smiled. He was excited to see what Pidge would think of his surprise. “Just watch. If I can tell time, then it should be any minute now.”

“Hmm.” Pidge mumbled, watching the horizon. “I hope so. I really want to take a nap.”

Clearly exhausted by her night’s work, Pidge leaned in slightly towards Lance, as if subconsciously looking for a place to rest her head. Lance moved in just enough to let her place her head on his side, barely daring to breathe in case she moved away.

“Look now,” he said quietly, pointing towards the curved edge of the dead planet. “It’s the sunrise for this planet.”

The light from the planet’s sun was just beginning to spread out from behind the giant body, creating a halo of light that rapidly and brilliantly illuminated the entire sky before them, creating a multicoloured glow as it spread through the atmosphere of the planet. The star changed from orange, to yellow, to a white so brilliant that both paladins had to look away.

“Woah,” Pidge murmured. “This is… pretty amazing.” Her hand brushed against Lance’s before softly, silently grabbing hold of it.

“Glad you like it,” Lance whispered, containing the surprising high of feeling Pidge’s hand in his and resisting the urge to pull her in for some attempt at an ultra-romantic sunrise kiss. She didn’t want to push his luck.

“It’s beautiful.” Pidge tightened her grip on Lance’s hand. “Thanks for showing this to me. I never really pay enough attention to stuff outside of my machines.”

“I knew you’d like it.”

The pair wordlessly watched as the darkness of space was filled with a warm, overwhelming, beautiful light.