Minisode - Amore

 Minisode
Amore

A/N: A look into the meet cute between Pidge and Anya! Technically part of Voltron Force: Succession, but set way before the main story.

 

"Since when do you read, Lance?" Pidge asked.

"Since I went for my lit degree, four eyes. Now, get in the damn library."

Lance ushered Pidge into the high-ceilinged room, letting the door echo closed behind them. Pidge enjoyed the library. It was where he could work unbothered, since everyone else was doing the same. Though now his ears burned, hearing the reverberation of Lance's comment across the walls.

"What did you even want me to see?" he mumbled.

"Not what," Lance said, "who. I want you to meet a new friend of mine."

The castle library was one of the few sections that were open to the public. Usually, it brought in nearby university students who were looking for historical sources. That made Pidge more confused. Absolutely anybody could walk in and with how easily Lance connected with people, he couldn't even narrow it down to the regulars he saw that could be his potential friend. Though, it also didn't help that Lance didn't seem to know where his friend even was.

"Don't tell me you dragged me over here and didn't even check in with them to see if they were actually here." Pidge asked in a monotone voice.

Lance whispered, "Oh, they're here alright! This place is just fucking huge, so I don't know where they're at."

They spent the next few minutes walking around the library, peaking between the tall shelves and quickly waving to those who were brave enough to greet them first. Pidge still didn't know who he was looking for, so eventually he left Lance to his search and walked to the history section, hoping for some information on his next mission.

Recently, Allura took to bringing Pidge along to her diplomatic duties around Arus. Most of them dealt with things he'd worked on, so he thought he was there to make the next discussions easier. Except he noticed he quickly fell behind when important history to the project was brought up, stuck waiting until the Princess quickly explained things to him to get back into the conversation. Just thinking about it had him biting at the skin of his lip. He had to research more, so he didn't look like a charity case again. His basic knowledge just wasn't enough anymore.

As he finally got to the most relevant section, Pidge picked up on a familiar sound. He struggled to make out what it was until he rounded the next corner, seeing an unfamiliar girl organizing returned books with earbuds in, keeping her in her own little world. The sound of music blasting through the small speakers of her earbuds was all too familiar to Pidge, and something he appreciated, as it was loud enough to hear through the silent halls of the library. He still couldn't place what the song was, but the metal guitar riff gave him a good guess.

He didn't want to seem like a creep, though he definitely felt like one right about now, so he started looking through the shelves for the books he came for. She still didn't seem to notice him as he ended up behind her, having found the era he was looking for. As Pidge scanned the shelf, his mind wandered again. He considered himself a big metal fan and couldn't help but try to figure out the songs she was listening to. It was new, he figured, since the instrumental wasn't something he recognized. As he strained to hear the next notes, foreign lyrics that he could barely make out surprised him.

… Was that Japanese? Keith was the only one he knew that spoke it, being Japanese and all, but it had been a while since he last heard him speak it, so he wasn't entirely sure.

As he listened longer, the vocals were obviously high-pitched, which was jarring to him as his songs leaned on the deeper end. The chorus had kicked in, and the song became more melodic, eventually leading to a heavy instrumental break that lost him into the world the girl behind him was in too.

The song had long changed as Pidge continued to skim the shelf absentmindedly for his books all over again. He figured she was listening to their album as the same feminine vocalists popped up. Maybe he'd work up the courage to ask for the band name. After getting his book, of course, he was still there for that. Not the band that quickly grew on him the more he vaguely listened to their discography.

Pidge finally snapped back into reality as he heard the beep from his voltcom, something he and Hunk had been working on refining after finding older schematics for them in the castle archives.

"WYA short stack?" Lance's message read,

He rolled his eyes. The nickname wasn't anything new, but he and Hunk were always finding something new to call him. It was a miracle he was even consistently called Pidge at this point.

"History section. You'd be familiar since your wrinkles look like book pages and are likely written about too."

"It's on sight next time I see you, Pidge-squeak."

Pidge quietly laughed. Making fun of Lance was one of his favorite pass times. He figured that Lance finally found his friend and was on his way, so he quickly found some useful books and turned to leave. Until the mystery employee that was behind him the entire time backed into Pidge while trying to admire her finished work.

"Shit!" she gasped, "I'm so sorry!"

Pidge unconsciously shifted the foot she had scraped with her own. It kind of stung, but nothing he couldn't ignore. Though she immediately noticed his movement and became more frantic with apologizing.

"Oh God, I didn't mean to run into you like that! Is your foot sore? We're near a first aid kit I can clean you up with."

"I'm fine, don't worry! It was an accident. Everything is fine."

She sighed in relief, mumbling something under her breath. Though it was in another language, he pieced together that it was Spanish, something he heard semi-regularly from Lance's cussing. The only words he knew, really.

A lot of people from Terra had been landing on Arus lately, he noticed, so he was more surprised that she seemed to live and work on Arus looking so young. He got a good look at her as she fidgeted and thought she couldn't have been any older than he was. In human standards, that was very surprising, seeing as he was only 16.

She brushed her hair behind her ears before she spoke again, but he had tuned her out and focused on the tips of them. Sharp the way his were, the way Balton ears were. As she started to speak, Pidge interrupted her,

"Oh goo-"

"Are you Balton?" he whispered. The softness of his words surprised him, as if he was afraid to even know the answer.

The girl was taken aback, but quickly became curious about his pointed question.

"Half, actually," she said, "How'd you know?"

"Your ears, they're just like mine!"

Almost immediately, the two jumped into conversion about where they and their family had hailed from, reminiscing about memories of their planet, and even held a brief conversation in proficient enough Balton. Pidge learned about nearby restaurants that served Balton inspired and traditional foods, something he didn’t know about since he rarely visited the city, or left the castle at all.

As they talked, he learned she was a nearby university student and took a job as a part-time library assistant to help pay for school costs. The castle was incredibly close to the city of Altea so it surprised him to learn they offered agriculture courses, her focus, since the nearest farm was a way further than the distance between the castle and Altea.

"Who were you listening to, by the way? I heard it while looking for my books," Pidge asked,

"Oh! It's a band I recently found. Their sound is actually pretty addicting."

As she dug her phone out of her pocket, Pidge studied her again. It was no wonder she looked so young. She was his age, her Balton genetics just did her no favors. Those genes were recessive, but when they lined up, others got the short end of the stick. Literally, because they often were even shorter than full Baltons who were already pretty small thanks to the heavy gravity they'd evolved to live in. He felt a strange satisfaction knowing someone shorter than him and was the same age.

Not that her clothing helped either, he noticed. Recently, Pidge tried to dress better, so people would think he's older and stop treating him like such a kid. Yet she did no such thing, wearing a washed out red over-sized hoodie over form fitting jeans and black-and-white sneakers, which honestly made her look even younger than she was. She constantly brushed her brown hair out of her face, too. Too long for comfort and short enough to be a nuisance. Another thing that added to her child-like look.

She pulled up the artists and their discography, practically ranting about their history as their singers had apparently changed a few times and how their main idea was to mix cute with metal, which... was an interesting choice, Pidge thought. He noted their popular songs, but his friend had also given him the name of the first song he’d heard when he saw her. Amore.

"Hey, you found each other!"

Lance's sudden appearance startled Pidge, but the girl practically jumped out of her skin before getting an annoyed expression he didn't realize she could muster.

"Lance, don't do that! Christ," she whisper-yelled at him.

Pidge blinked, hard. No way he found the mysterious friend Lance was talking up the entire walk over without Lance himself.

The leather clad pilot laughed, "You were supposed to be expecting me! It's not my fault you tuned out the world again, while on the job, might I add."

A loud smack only slightly dulled by the leather he wore echoed between the bookshelves as the girl flushed pink at the reverberating sound. Though it quickly faded as she looked Lance in the eye with false bravado.

"Fuck’s sake, Anya!" Lance said, dramatically rubbing his arm, "How are you so heavy-handed."

"That's what you get for being mean!" 

A quiet pfft escape from Pidge's lips. Sure, he'd seen people smack Lance, playfully and aggressively, but that must've been the quickest to draw he's witnessed yet.

“Laugh all you want. She might slug you next, and we’ll see who’s giggling at the end.”

“Dang, we only just met, and I’m already hearing promises of violence? What kind of people do you attract, Lance?”

“The kind that listen to their heart,” Lance said with fake sincerity.

Before they could continue to chatter, the sound of someone clearing their throat behind Pidge and Anya caught them off guard. It came from an older, stockier woman who was almost as tall as Lance and had wrinkles across her face that were definitely from the years of giving people the same disapproving look she was currently giving them.

“Lance McClain, what have I told you about bothering my employees while at work? And why are you entertaining his presence at all, Anya?” she said.

Before she got into any more trouble, Pidge held up his books and piped up,

“She was actually helping me out. Though I can’t vouch for Lance, since he never has a good reason to be in here.”

Lance gave him a dirty look as dissatisfaction radiated off the librarian’s figure.

“I’ve never bothered anyone in my life, Alba. Just wanted to drag Pidge away before taking up any more of Anya’s precious time.”

“Off you go then. I’m not above banning either you if you keep bothering my employees.”

“Yes, ma’am!” The boys responded.

As they walked away, Pidge twisted back, “See you later, then?”

“I have lunch in an hour if you want to hit the marketplace. I’ll be at the front desk before then!”

“Okay!”

Once they reached the nearest check-out station for Pidge’s haul, Lance began laughing. Earning a skeptical look from his partner.

“What now?”

“Well one, I knew you’d get along with her! And two, I didn’t expect you to land a date on the first meeting!”

“A what.”

“A date, idiot! I heard you making lunch plans with her not even a minute ago.”

“Lance, she just told me earlier about the Balton restaurants nearby and took the chance to show them to me.”

Lance smacked him with one of the heavier books Pidge had. “So what I’m hearing is that she did all the heavy lifting.”

“Well, one of us had to since you were off doing who knows what in the opposite direction of her.”

“You just saw how small she was, Pidge. Literally could not leave any hall unchecked since she could’ve been crouched behind something!”

Lance’s comment echoed back to the pair, earning an embarrassed blush from the red lion pilot who didn’t realize how loud he had gotten. Pidge saw Anya’s head peek out of shelves in the distance, who of course was quietly laughing with him. Lance quickly waved to her before he picked up the rest of the dusty books and practically pushed Pidge through the door.

“Ha ha, looks like somebody got caught~,” Pidge mocked.

“Zip it, bird, I’m not above telling the princess about your lunch date with the cute little librarian girl you have in an hour.”

“Again, not a date, and don’t you fucking dare Lance I WILL throw away your skin products.”

The two bickered their entire walk back to the lounge. Any thought of mentioning the new bond their youngest teammate had made to anyone else was out the window and replaced by the instinct to hit one another with the books. And heavy coughing from the resulting dust flying out of them.