Figuring Out

The Lounge

They were all sitting in the lounge on their phones, not talking much, just enjoying each other's company. Lance sighed dramatically, getting most people to glance at him.
"So..." he began, nervous about where he was taking it, "I've been thinking..."
"That's a first." Keith said in a beat.
"Ouch. Cold. Classic Keith." The darker haired man rolled his eyes, bringing them back to what ever was on his screen.
"Anyways, I've been thinking about what Allura said, the other day... about loving anyone. It's something I had never really thought about before, but I guess, I think, well, I'm not really sure-"
"Hell, just spit it out!" Keith snapped.
"I'm not sure if I like just girls! I...I think I might like guys too, and never realised?" He blurted.

The room went a weird, thinking quiet, Keith had awkwardness floating from him.
"Sorry, for snapping at you." He mumbled as close to a whisper as he could.
"Nah, it's okay, I needed that jump. But uh, yeah. I really don't know though, I'm just, really confused." He cocked his head to the side. "Pidge you're the smart one,"
"Yep."
"Can you help me?"
"Sorry, but no." She shrugged. "What ever, if anything," he made a face, "goes in up there, I can't help you figure it out."
"Wow, that's cruel. You'll go back to earth, and become a scientist or whatever, and they'll give you a plaque,

'Miss Katie Holt, She helped everyone in the universe, But her friend Lance."

He held his arms out wide and drooped his head in the middle, defeated.
"Who says we're friends?" Pidge joked.
"WHAT?! So hold on, Keith is my friend, and you're not?! What world do we live in?! Are we sure we're in our reality still?" His eccentricity could rival Coran's.

"Technically, given all the possibilities in the universe, chance and probability-"
Lance made a pinching motion with his hand in front of her face. "I did not ask for the science behind it, it was a joke."
"Oh right. All I'm saying is that there is the chance that we aren't in our original reality."
"Wait, really? Please don't give me nightmares." He sighed.
"Ahh, want someone to hold your hand?" She mocked.
"Oh shut up, or I will throw you out of the air lock!"
"Oo, careful Lance, you're starting to sound awfully like Keith..."
"I-wha-NO!"
"Lance? Like me? I'm deeply offended." Keith spoke up.
"Emo. Classic Keith." Lance quipped.
"Oh please don't make that a thing..."
"Angsty. Classic Keith." Pidge's quipped as well.
"Sweet heavens, I might go back to the Blades..." he groaned into his hands.

"Back to the more important issue at hand," Matt started, "if you like guys now, that leaves Allura all to me." He got looks from three of the group, while Hunk glanced up lazily at him and Lance began his rebuttal.
"No, no, no, no, no, dear Matthew," Matt looked up from the identical disbelieving gazes he was getting to cringe back into his seat.
"Don't call me Matthew."
"I'm pretty sure I like guys and girls. Allura is still a viable option for me."
"Is she though?" Hunk goaded.
"OH! I'm just gonna stop talking now." Lance threw himself back into his seat, arms folded, pouting.

Everyone laughed, before Pidge let out a loud and sleepy yawn, laying back comfortably and lolling her head to the side a bit, eyes dripping closed.
"Pidge?" Shiros hand was on her shoulder, as she snapped awake again.
"Hmm?"
"I think maybe you should go to bed."
"Mm, maybe." She curled up even more in her seat.
"No, no maybe about it. You're exhausted, go to bed. C'mon." He shoved her forward slightly, enough to make her move from her seat.
"Uhhh! Fine, dad!" She moaned.
"Dad?! No, no, if I'm anything, I'm the Space Uncle." He defended.
"Nope. That's Coran. You're the space dad. Good night." With that, she was out the door.

"I am not the space dad..." Shiro mumbled to himself.
"You totally are dude, sorry." Hunk said beside him.
"Really? Sheesh."

"Hey, can I ask you guys about something?" Matt spoke again, this time with a shy uncertainty.
"Go ahead." Shiro nodded.
"Well, is anyone else worried about Pidge? She seems so, off lately, I don't know, maybe it's space?"
"Yeah I've noticed that too, she's quiet a lot more now, but it's only recently." Hunk put his phone down the for the first time to properly join the conversation.
"I keep thinking, maybe it's me?" Matt was so quiet, he sounded hurt.

"I think it is you, but not the way you think it is." Shiro spoke after a minute.
"What?"
"Think about it. She was lead to believe that you were dead for nearly two years, every time she tried to get to the truth, someone was there to shut her out of it. So for you to suddenly be here, alive and well and laughing, joking about the whole thing, it's probably a lot for her. I'd say she just needs time."
"That makes sense. It feels sucky though."

"Actually, she's been kinda off for a while now. It's more noticeable now, but ever since she was going to leave, but didn't, she's been, not herself. She's still Pidge, but, I don't know, not as much, if that makes sense." Hunk added. He was always closer to Pidge than Lance was back on earth, Lance was too over-the-top.
"Maybe it's the girl thing? Other than Allura, we're all guys, and she's not exactly the closest with her. Maybe she feels out of place?" Keith added.
"She has always been a bit weird about the whole 'girl' thing, even when she was little. I remember her asking why couldn't girls be nerdy or like running around, why they were always wearing nice dresses and laughing at her. It was a bit heartbreaking really, but she seems to have gotten over that." Matt spoke out of memory, a frown forming into a light smile.
"Yeah, she's never seemed like any other girls we've met, even the nerdy ones. She loved spending time with the Olkari, you ever met them, the genius's?" Lance asked Matt.
"Oh, I met a few, they really are incredible."
"Yeah, she loved spending time there, but even then, the Olkari girls were different from Pidge. And they're super nerdy."

"Guys give her a break." Shiro spoke up, holding his chin in a very thoughtful, Dad-like way. "Remember, she pretended to be a guy for over a year straight. After hearing "Pidge" and "He" or "Him" for that long, it probably felt like a weird kind of normal. I know I still feel a bit out of place when people call me Shirogane, let alone Takashi Shirogane. Being "She" and "Her" and "Katie" again might take a bit of time, especially when everyone she meets also thinks she's a guy until proven otherwise."
"Wait, your name is what? Takashi?" Lance asked, bewildered.
"Yeah, what did you think it was?"
"I don't know, just...Shiro?"
Shiro deadpanned the fool. "No, that's a nickname coz it's easier to say. My full name is Takashi Shirogane."
"Oh. Oops." Lance awkwardly glanced away.

Shiro then got up and climbed out of the couch ring, rubbing his temple, offering only "I'll be back in a minute." As his reason for doing so. He got to the door, hit the button open, then froze.
Being able to see past him due to the angle he was sitting at, Hunk was the first to react.

"Pidge?"

Now everyone else was craning their necks and moving to see. She was standing in the hall, shoulders slouched and head drooped, obviously crying.

Then Shiro did something none of them expected, and something he never did again, as long as anyone could remember: he threw a very rude gesture over his shoulder at the group, who gasped in collective shock.
Then he stepped into the hall, slapping the door shut again, effortlessly picking up the girl before it could shut them out of view.