Recovery
Chapter Four
Many Happy Returns
A/N: It's January y'all and that means we're back! Once again, hopefully the holidays were gentle with you all, R&R if you have the time <3
The air in the room didn’t calm down at all in the next few seconds, the reel of Wade’s interview still inaudibly playing from Vince’s phone, slowly but surely building more dread on the pilots. Nobody spoke, everyone focused on their own anxieties. A beeping coming from Allura’s voltcom and the datapad that was brought for Coran caught their attention. A new notification displayed on their respective devices, well welcomed, it distracted everyone in the room, and they hoped whatever it was would finally tear them away from seemingly uncertain doom.
“Oh!” Allura said aloud as she tapped the pop-up screen on her voltcom, “I entirely forgot it was today!”
Coran said, "I can't do much work since being ordered to rest. Give her some of it, will you?”
Vince and Daniel looked at each other confused as Allura nodded. They only saw nostalgic expressions, and excitement from Pidge, when they looked to the others. Daniel glanced at Larmina, even she had a reassured look to her.
Allura tried to work something out while Vince put his phone down. Finally deciding, she looked at the pilots,
“Can one of you go get her, please? I’d like to stay with Coran longer”
Pidge didn't give anyone else a chance to speak and bolted out of the room.
Hunk and Lance laugh,
“I think that’s a yes from Pidge, princess,” Lance said while giving her a playful wink. She rolls her eyes with a soft smile in response,
Hunk excitedly ran out the door with Lance right behind him, heading over to join Pidge at the castle’s landing pad.
-
Pidge tried to keep his excitement from showing, but couldn't stop himself from bouncing on his toes as he watched the fractal descend. As it touched down, Hunk and Lance burst through the nearby doorway, making it to Pidge as the ship finally settled. For Pidge, it was almost painful to watch the ramp slowly open up. Luckily for him, it isn’t too long before he finally saw the person he was waiting for. She looked right back at him, with a duffle bag uncomfortably slung across her body, and immediately her face broke out with a big smile.
The ramp barely settled on the ground beneath it before the two immediately close the gap between them, not wasting another second before they hugged each other tightly,
“You’re here!” She said excitedly, “you’re really back on Arus Pidge!”
He laughed, “Yup! I almost missed your landing, but I’m so glad I made it back in time”
They continued to chatter between themselves, while Hunk and Lance shared a knowing look. Keith walked up to them, coffee mug in hand, and gives in to his curiosity,
“Alright, what’s with the look? Anything important I missed over here?”
Hunk gave him a snarky smile, “Anya visited us about 3 years ago for the holidays on Terra, and wouldn’t you know it, the time worked its magic!”
“We haven’t given them too much slack for it since they were a galaxy away most of the time, but now we can really give them crap for catching feelings,” Lance picked up, with a more evil smile instead,
Keith didn’t necessarily approve of their plans, but that’s just how it was with his group of friends, he thought. He knew they were happy at least, so he wasn’t going to step all over their fun.
Calming down from a fit of laughter, Pidge and Anya finally fad into the world around them. Once they noticed they were still in each other’s arms, they took a step back, both wearing soft smiles. Anya caught a glimpsed of more color-coded uniforms behind him, and in realizing who they were, she excitedly waved at the boys. Pidge took her duffle before she thanked him and ran off.
Anya made a beeline for Lance and practically throwing herself at him for a hug. Not minding, he hugged back with equal intensity, laughing at the fact that she barely weighed anything, much less to even take him down. She quickly moved to Hunk and Keith, giving the same amount of love to Hunk and pushing past the awkwardness between her and Keith to give him one, too. It was hard for Keith to know if he should hug her like the rest did, time wise they only knew each other for 2 years before he had gone ‘rogue’ for the next 5. But after she gave him a tight squeeze, he threw the feeling out the window and hugged her just as tight, albeit carefully, as he still held hot coffee in one hand.
Pidge made his way over while Anya shot off questions about what they did while she was gone,
“Let's get you inside first, short stuff. You might need to sit down for all the awesomeness we bring,” Lance told her smugly.
-
Vince wasn’t happy with how much he knew about the castle controls, so after bugging Daniel and Larmina to go with him, there he stood, looking over the now translated labels of the controls. As he worked through what each command did, the other two laid in holochairs, bored out of their absolute minds. Larmina perked up, hearing laughter down the only hall near them. The boys and Anya walked through, while Anya tried to fight her laughter as she attempts to finish telling the story of her recent assignment,
“I know! I didn’t know how to say, ‘Get it through your thick skull, that’s a horrible place to put the thing!’’
Now all the cadets turned to her. Daniel was especially curious and noted her like he did with the pilots before. As she walked over, he noticed she was the shortest out of the group, even shorter than Pidge by a visible degree. She wore a full pastel blue uniform with white replacing it at her shoulders, chest, and neck. Her sleeves were cuffed with a gold color and more white at the very end, and on her feet were matching white gogo boots that reached her knees. He also noticed that the ears slightly poked out of her hair were pointed looking. Daniel guessed she was some type of alien, only for his thought to be confirmed as a second pair of eyelids blinked instead of her primary ones.
“Cadets, I’d like you to meet Anya! Our resident Royal Advisor In Training!” Pidge chirped happily, “Anya, these are our two new cadets, Daniel and Vince”
“Nice to meet ya!- How's it goin'!-“ the boys said simultaneously,
Anya grins, greeting them in return. Larmina rolls her eyes,
“Don’t tell me you forgot me now, and to think we work together all the time!”
“Oh please! I’d never forget you in a million years ‘Mina” Anya said as she dug in the duffle Pidge was still holding, “Here! I got you a souvenir like I promised”
She hands her a simple-looking keychain with a little llama figurine hanging at the end. Taking it, Larmina snorts,
“It’s so tacky, I love it, thank you”
As she put it away, Daniel busted out the questions he’d been coming up with since he heard her come in,
“What was your most recent assignment? Was it what you were talking about earlier? Do all royal advisors have to get sent out like you were? How’d you get the job anyway, its gotta be a hassle to even get interviewed for it-“
Before he could continue, Vince elbowed him and gave him a judgeing look. He rolled his eyes in return and focused back on the not so new member of castle staff. She took a moment to think about what to say before she looked back at him confidently,
“Yes! I just came back from a job on the field that needed me to head out to a town that wants to build a new monument for the crown. No, I don’t have to go out all the time, but since it’s supposed to endorse Arusian royalty, and Coran wasn’t here, I had to go out there to make sure the planned area was suitable for it. I got this job by working as a librarian in the castle while studying nearby. Coran scouted me and the rest is history!” Anya took in a deep breath, looking proud that she said all that in quick succession.
Daniel was shot another judging look, this time from Pidge. Thinking his expression was funny, Daniel asked one more question,
“Doing what Coran does then, huh? How do you deal with a boring job like that?”
“Daniel! Rude!” Vince chastised,
“No big!” she assured, “That’s what I’m training for. I’ll become an advisor when Coran thinks I’m ready and head advisor like he is once he retires. The job itself isn’t too bad though, but you’re very right on it being boring. For me, it’s just plain interesting seeing how royals work! Plus, my work doesn’t end there. I’ll be helping this sorry lot around me, including now you three now!”
At the snide comment, the pilots had amused grins on their faces and weren’t about to let it slide,
“Hey now!- I see how it is!- oh please!- don’t you start with that sister!-“ they said, overlapping each other,
“Does that mean you’ll also teach a class?” Vince asked,
“Yup! I’ll be your military and general Arusian history teacher, as well as being the person to teach you the ropes on castle defenses!” she shot a look at Pidge, “If there are any updates to it, because of course there will be, Pidge, he’ll be joining us to explain the changes,”
As Daniel and Larmina groaned to the news of more boring subjects added to their schedule, Pidge rolled his eyes at her jab and smugly replied,
“Hey, if I can upgrade something, then upgrade I will! Plus, you can’t stop genius, especially this one!”
“Sure ya can!” Lance butted in, “Just gotta place your tools on a high enough shelf!”
Pidge glared at him as the others all quietly laughed,
“So where’s the big cheeses? I haven’t even heard from them since this morning,” Anya asked, finally remembering the people she’s employed under,
Keith grimaced, “They’re in the medbay. Allura’s fine, but Coran’s been told to take it easy for a bit. Nat is standing guard right now. You should be able to ask the three of them about what happened,”
Immediately, her face changed into one of worry. She helped Pidge take off her duffle and thanked Keith before she ran off for the medical wing,
-
Hearing the door slide open, Allura and Coran see Nat and Anya greet each other before Anya walked in,
“Nice to see you alive, Coran,” she said, attempting to not sound so serious,
“It’s nice to be alive, yes,” he lightly laughed, “How was your trip? Did everything go alright?”
She dug for her datapad in her duffle before fiddling with it, “Mostly! I have some new documents. They’re still asking to build that monument, but I convinced them to give me a list of other spots they’d like so we can give the go ahead”
“Good work,” Allura said as she received the documents on her voltcom, “Since Coran is supposed to get rest, he can work on this at most while we do the rest!”
“It’s what I’ve been training for, princess!”
Coran tried to sit up, getting dizzy in the process. As both ladies held him, it passed, and he adjusted himself,
“Before we get to work, though, mind catching me up to speed on... whatever put Coran in the hospital?” Anya asked, trying not to be insensitive about his situation.
-
“Wait, who’s Nat?” Vince questioned, still in the control room with the others, this time with Pidge helping him study the controls,
“Oh! She’s the chief of royal guards! You can also find her with Pidge and I in the hangar. She likes to help a lot, and man, do we need it sometimes!” Hunk explained happily,
“You guys have royal guards here?!” Daniel shouted, “Man, why didn’t you tell us earlier? We could’ve used some help with the bomb disguised as Coran, y’know!”
Keith rolled his eyes and took a sip from his mug, “We’re in a castle cadet, of course there're guards around, didn’t really expect to have to explain it to you, especially when Larmina has lived here longer than you”
“Hey! It was a life or death situation. I couldn’t just run off or send one of them for help when I could barely understand who or what it was in front of me!” she responded snidely,
“Well, from now on when you find evil robot versions of people, maybe instead of taking off on your own, shoot Nat a text or something,” Lance sassed in return
-
“Well, that’s horrifying,” Anya said with a bewildered look,
“That feels like an understatement,” Coran replied solemnly, “Are you sure you can take on my work?”
“Like I said, I’ve been training for this! Besides, you’re supposed to rest anyway, giving you any work to do is generous in the first place,”
He gave her an unimpressed look as Allura giggled before composing herself,
“Well, if that’s all said and done, let’s get to it!”
-
Hunk looked over Black lion once again, not so much worried about her but morbidly curious about the last time they formed Voltron,
“Keith, my man, I’m not sure what options we’ve got to recharge this kitty cat anymore. We formed Voltron today, and it didn’t even get her to full power!”
“At least it helped recharge her though,” Pidge piped up, not even looking at them as he poured over the data they got earlier, “Voltron might be a little weaker because of it, but if black still maxed out at half, it’d be even worse!”
“Safe to say we got lucky back there then,” Keith replied, “Who knows what would’ve happened if there was a robeast out there instead,”
Pidge grimaced, “Circuits, Keith! Don’t even mention that right now. We already have one power hungry maniac, and we don’t need another roaming around at the same time!”
“Especially after we put the last one 6 feet under,” Hunk agreed,
Instead of worrying too much on the battery life of black lion, Hunk talked armor upgrades with Keith, figuring that he wouldn’t need to use too much power if his lion could take more hits than usual.
Pidge had already tuned him out a bit ago, but seeing Anya walk by, distracted by her datapad, gave him a new focus. He immediately stood up and excused himself from the other two. Hunk was just about to question him until he saw a familiar pair of gogo boots barely pass the door frame. This time, Keith couldn’t stop himself from laughing, alongside Hunk, at their friend, who chased after her before the two went back to business.
-
Pidge followed behind her quietly, watching to make sure she doesn’t hit any walls while absorbed into her work, and walked into the castle sun room. At least one wall in these rooms was entirely made of reinforced glass, perfect for looking out into the distance no matter the weather or danger outside. Inside, there were seating arrangements ranging from couches and coffee tables to small café tables with matching chairs lined against the glass to look out into the horizon.
Anya took a seat on a couch, this one facing a very familiar forest to Pidge. Deciding to let his presence be known, he made his footsteps heavier. Once she saw it was him, she gave him an inviting smile, and scooted over for Pidge to sit next to her,
“Haven’t seen you in a few hours,” he said as he sat down, “Workload keeping you busy?”
“Not even busy at this point, I’m just plain swamped. The princess even took most of Coran’s work and instead of me being able to handle it, it’s handling me more like it!” groaned Anya tiredly,
“Tell me about it! Black isn’t working entirely right. We have a mad politician after Voltron and us, and we have to train teenagers to be our backup pilots in case something goes wrong again!”
“Thanks for that, by the way! A lot of this work is the Alliance formally yelling at Allura for not just letting it happen, but even helping it keep going!” She huffed, “But that’s not to say I didn’t miss you guys being here again. It’s like the energy came back to the castle,”
“Naw, look at you being sappy,” Pidge teased, “trust me, we’re way past happy to be back. When you visited us on Terra last time, you kinda helped jumpstart our energy to keep digging our way back home,”
Anya giggled at the memories from their winter three years ago. Allura was slotted to go visit instead, but got dragged off for a sudden royal duty. Not wanting the boys to be disappointed, she sent Anya out instead. She stayed for a week and spent every day with at least one of them. Pidge had the most free time, or skipped out on his work more often, so he was the one usually with her. Anya loved every moment, both with and without the others, especially because it brought her closer to the friend she had lost twice before already.
He spoke up again, “And good timing, too. We were most of the way home and didn’t even know it!”
“Too bad going home meant actually having to deal with an evil politician”
“You say that like not all politicians are evil”
“The princess is technically a politician, it’s in my contract that I can’t speak ill of her”
Pidge snickered, if he missed anything, it was the easy banter and quick change of subject that Anya could do that made talking to her fun.
“If you keep me from throttling Wade, then we won’t have to worry about getting separated by him again,” he offered,
Not missing a beat, she agreed before adding one last thing, “Who's to say I won't lose my grip? Maybe then you can give him what for”
“Oh ancestors! Make sure not to let go at the best, sorry worst, time then!”
They both laughed. All their work was forgotten as they let themselves fall into easy conversation once again. In the back of their minds, they hoped nothing would interrupt the moment, as they both finally felt like they were truly home again.
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