Work Text:
The sound was soft but Hunk woke up right away.
“Pidge? What’s wrong?”
“…I just had a nightmare is all.”
“Oh no! Come in, come in, do you want to talk about it?”
“No. You wouldn’t want to hear it anyway,” Pidge said, hunkering down on the bed.
“Hey, no worries, it’s okay,” Hunk said, wrapping a blanket around her. “Whatever it was, it’s not real.”
“Well, MOST of it’s not.”
“Oh, jeez. Hang on a sec.”
He left the room. The shouting sounded through the door.
“LANCE! WAKE UP! Pidge had a nightmare!”
When the door opened again, it was both of them.
“UNACCEPTABLE!” Lance declared, a disheveled mess at the door. He jumped on the bed and snatched Pidge into his arms. “We don’t allow this kind of bullshit on our ship!”
“Hey, it’s okay,” Pidge choked as Lance squeezed her tighter. Hunk sat down and pulled the both of them in.
“It’s not okay for at least FIFTEEN minutes,” Lance said. He loosened his grip. “Was it about your brother?”
“It was about everyone.”
“Aww, Pidgey. We love you, too. In fact, Pidgey…” he glanced over, “I actually love you MORE than Hunk does.”
“Hey, that is NOT true,” Hunk said.
“No, it is. See, Hunk actually UNDERSTANDS half of the stuff you always say, so he’s cheating. I love you without understanding ANYTHING you say, and that’s why it means more.”
“But, you see, Lance is wrong because if he really loved you more than I do, HE would bake you cookies.”
“Well Hunk is wrong because he’s Hunk.”
“Pidge, who are you going to believe, ME, or the guy who thought sugar plums grow on trees?”
“For your information there could EASILY be a planet where sugar plums grow on trees!”
Pidge scoffed.
“It would take a lot of energy for a tree to refine its sugar into a candy,” she said. “If there IS a sugar plum tree, it’s definitely a cultivated species.”
“Okay, again, I didn’t catch any of that, but if it means there’s sugar plum trees out there, we have to get one,” Lance said. “You know, Pidge, I bet HUNK doesn’t love you enough to get you a sugar plum tree.”
“Excuse YOU, Lance, but if sugar plum trees existed I would have already GOTTEN her one.”
“Hmph. Well would you have gotten ME one?”
“Not if you’re gonna say that YOU love Pidge more than I do.”
“HUNK you drive the WORST bargain!”
Pidge started to laugh. The others smiled.
“You starting to feel better?” Hunk asked.
“A bit, yeah.”
“Come on, let’s go get some tea or something,” Lance untangled himself. “There’s something kind of like tea on this ship, right?”
“In that it’s hot and you can drink it, yes,” Pidge said.
They opened the door.
“Keith, how long have you been standing out here?”
“Not long,” Keith looked away.
“Well ya creep, we’re getting tea, come with us.”
“We have that here?”
“Okay, we’re not having this argument but come with us anyway.”
“Hey Keith,” Lance said once they’d reached the kitchen, “If you had to guess, who do you think loves Pidge more, me or Hunk?”
“If I had to guess? Why do I have to guess?”
“You DON’T have to guess, because it’s obviously me,” Hunk said.
“I mean… it doesn’t seem THAT obvious…” Keith hemmed.
“That means it’s me! Keith has spoken!” Lance sang.
“Hey, I didn’t say THAT…”
“Seriously, guys, it’s okay…” Pidge said.
“No, I think it IS Hunk,” Keith said after a moment.
“OHHH YOU DID NOT!” Lance spun towards him.
“Hey,” Hunk grinned, “Don’t ask questions you can’t handle the answer to.”
Lance grumbled something into his teacup.
They looked up when someone entered the room. It was Shiro.
“What’s everyone doing in here?” he said. “It’s late for you guys to be up.”
“It’s late for YOU to be up,” Pidge said. Shiro shrugged.
“Hey Shiro, come have some tea with us,” Lance beckoned.
“You guys found tea out here?”
Lance sighed.
“Okay, it’s a figure of speech.”
Shiro accepted a cup of almost-tea.
“Do you guys do this EVERY night?”
Pidge smiled.
“No, but we should.”