#THANK u widge... | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

nadiarizavi · 6 years

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a/n: a long time coming!! a super long time coming!!! but anyways please enjoy thank u uwu........

Lance woke up to the sound of a blender pulsing.

He blinked, slow, a headache thrumming to the beat of his own heart, the pain from sleeping on a couch hitting him like a train. There were pins and needles behind his eyelids. The blender certainly wasn’t helping his situation.

“Hunk, turn that fucking thing off,” Lance groaned, loudly. The blender clicked quiet.

It took him maybe ten seconds after the fact to remember his roommate didn’t keep a blender in the dorm room.

He sat up quick, far too quick, because one hand missed the edge of the couch and he slipped halfway off with a loud curse. There was a snort from the general direction of the blender. His memory was fuzzy around the edges.

He got laid. (Booyah.)

His car got towed. (Not so booyah.)

He called Hunk. Or he thought he called Hunk. But it was some girl named Widge or Fidge or whatever. And that girl gave him spare clothes and a place to sleep without asking for anything in return except sworn secrecy to the evening’s events.

“Are you alright?”

Blender was speaking. Not blender. British?

He opened his eyes, blinking the sleep out, staring up into the face of… not Smidge.

He’d remember if Ridge’s hair was the color of starlight.

(Christ, why can’t he remember her name?)

Oh, right. The new girl. The very, very pretty new girl.

“Buh.”

She cocked her head, an amused smile on her face, eyes twinkling. God, this was more embarrassing than the time he tried to do a keg stand in the back of a moving pickup truck.

(Long story.)

“Oh, he woke up?”

That one was.. Kidge?

The other girl took a step back with a laugh. “Yeah. He seems rather exhausted...”

“Physics does that,” the familiar girl stood over him next, outstretching a hand and gesturing towards it. “Come on, Lance. Think you’re good for the exam?”

He didn’t remember telling Hidge his name, but alright.

He also certainly didn’t remember having an exam today, but Lance wasn’t having that great of a week to start.

He grasped her hand, which despite the small size had quite a strong grip, and she pulled him up into a sitting position. She cleaned up nice, Lance noted. Plain, but better than looking exhausted and exasperated. He turned away from her, looking back at her assumed roommate, who was busying herself back at the blender and pouring three glasses of smoothies before coming back their way.

“Here you are,” said the stranger, placing the glass in his hands. “It’ll restore your electrolytes.”

She said it with a wide grin, and Lance returned it with a sheepish one. Lidge let out a cough.

“Right. Lance, this is my roommate Allura. Allura, this is Lance, one of my classmates.”

Allura gave him a wave. “It’s nice to meet you. Katie doesn’t bring classmates over with her that often, so it’s nice to see--”

“Katie?” Lance blurted, interrupted, surprising them both when his head whipped to stare at the girl, who was now looking less-than-pleased. “Wh--Pidge! That’s it! That’s what you told me your name was! Not Katie!”

Pidge--Katie blinked, undisturbed. “Yeah. Pidge is fine, too.”

He sputtered, almost dropping his smoothie in distress before remembering that this wasn’t his carpet and Katie looked like she was ready to throw him out. It probably was crossing her mind. He wasn’t entirely sure what Katie was thinking, really, and he figured he might never.

And then she lifted her bookbag, adjusting the straps on her shoulder. “Anyway. Lance and I have to get going, Allura. I’ll see you after your meeting?”

Allura blinked, as if she was still processing the conversation. But instead of asking more questions she just smiled, walking backwards to her room as she did. “Of course! Good luck with the test, you guys! I’m your biggest fan.”

And she excused herself, leaving Lance alone with not-Pidge-but-Katie, who let out a scoff as her door clicked shut.

“You have a loud mouth,” Katie observed. Lance let out a low groan.

“This is probably the worst day of my life.”

“Huh. I was going to say yesterday must’ve been, but you were naked on the streets past midnight, so yeah. Worst day, indeed.”

He rubbed an eye with the heel of one hand, groaning hard. “I just--I can’t believe this is how my day’s going. Holy fuck. I have to get my car back, and like, my wallet and keys from that girl, and I can barely remember her name, too…”

“Oof.”

“Don’t you ‘oof,’ me!” He pointed an accusing finger. “What the fuck’s a Pidge?!”

“I told you. A nickname. And that’s really not the important thing. You gotta go.”

“I--I have to go?!”

“Well, this is my apartment.”

It wasn’t like he could argue with that.

“Come on, I’ll walk you back,” said Katie, already halfway out the door. Lance sputtered, chugging as much of the smoothie as he could stomach without a brain freeze, then stumbling off after her. She walked brisk, as if she couldn’t wait to be away from her hot roommate Allura, or maybe even him.

“Walk faster, I don’t want to be late for my exam.”

Or that.

He followed quickly, almost forgetting he wasn’t wearing shoes (another casualty in last night’s Incident, with a capital I) and he was going to have to walk across campus following this girl until he could get someone to key him into his building. Katie didn’t speak to him until they reached the elevator to the parking garage.

“So, do you want to get your stuff back from your date?” She pushed the button for the third floor. Lance gave her a bewildered look.

“Obviously.”

“Alright. Want me to drop you off there instead?”

His head was still pounding.

“To be honest, I just want to sleep off the rest of this hangover.”

She grinned. “No classes?”

“I can miss a day.”

She shrugged, folding her hands neatly over her chest. “Fair enough.”

Lance narrowed his eyes at her. “Wait, why’d you suggest that?”

Katie grinned. “Well, if I spent the night with a six foot tall string bean and he bounced in the middle of the night leaving all of his personal effects without a signal, I’d want to give his stuff back.”

Lance decided he respected Katie.

“Or trash them, I guess,” she added as an afterthought.

He didn’t like her, but he respected her.

Lance followed her once they reached the floor she parked on, talking after her. “Okay, so I should get back there before she trashes my stuff is what you’re saying, right?”

“It’s what you’re saying.”

“Can you…” he hesitated. “Come with?”

She paused, key hovering over her car door. She turned slow, gesturing at him with her car key, one brow quirked up.

“You already owe me a thousand favors and you want to add another one?”

“Well, I can’t exactly explain this to my roommate or my other friends--”

“Yes, you can. And you will. We--we’re not friends, dude.”

He deflated, shoulders drooping as he stared down at her. “Unbelievable. You think you know a girl after spending a night on her couch in her clothes…”

“I shouldn’t have even answered the phone.”

That stung a little. But Lance could work with that. He cleared his throat as she turned away, back to her car.

“But you did. You did answer the phone. And you could’ve also hung up, but you didn’t.”

She slumped back in her seat, one foot still out, glancing at him incredulously.

“Where are you going with that?”

“I mean to say, you’re a carer, Pidge.”

“A carer, huh?”

“If you didn’t care, would you be here? Would I be here?”

She rolled her eyes. “If I didn’t care, you know where I’d be, Lance?”

“Where’s that?”

“At my exam. Get in the car, could you?”

He conceded, strapping back into the familiar passenger side, leaning back into his seat as Katie took up driving them out of the parking garage and towards campus. He let out a whistle, looking back down at the shirt she loaned to him.

“So, since you care so much--”

“You’re really pushing it.”

He raised a hand in defense. “Let me finish. Come on, don’t you want to at least help me go back to that girl’s apartment? Reclaim my shoes?”

She glanced quickly towards his feet, then back up at the road. “You’re not doing a great job of convincing me to help you, you know.”

“Well then, convince me why you won’t.”

“Because, Lance,” she swung hard into a parking spot, forcing Lance to clutch onto the edge of his seat. Katie threw the car into park, then jutted a finger into his face. “I don’t know you. I don’t care to know you. I did my good deed, and frankly, I have bigger fish to fry than deal with some poor girl who woke up this morning wondering why the hell you fled in the middle of the goddamn night. Putting it into perspective, I am the last person who should’ve given a shit.”

He shrank back, eyes widening in surprise. And just as quickly as Katie snapped, she drew back, the scrunched up features of her face relaxing into something quite like guilt. Angrily, she let out a sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose beneath her glasses.

“Sorry. I… Sorry. I’m just…”

“Anxious about your exam?” Lance guessed. She gave a quiet nod.

“Yeah. That. Screw it. Okay. Can you at least let your roommate know you’re okay?”

Lance gave a slow nod. Pidge sighed.

“You can hang out here in my car if you’re too embarrassed. I’ll leave the keys, and I should be done in an hour.”

“Then?” There was hope in his tone, and Katie leveled her gaze.

“... Then we go and get your stuff.”

He fistpumped the air, grin wide, and before she could react, Lance threw his arms around her in a lung-crushing hug.

“You’re the best.”

“I know. Now please let go so I can get to class.”

Katie decided Lance was kind of infuriating.

She focused her attention back on her exam. Ten more questions, and she’d be out of here. Ten more, and Lance was still involved in her life and she was still just as involved in his.

Infuriating.

She rubbed at her eye, wishing her fatigue headache would disappear already. At least her all nighter paid off, study-wise. She wasn’t sure Lance remembered the night entirely, from the second she lead him upstairs to her apartment and making him a makeshift bed on the couch. He crashed, almost instantaneously, but not before doing something she figured was uncharacteristic and only possible in the heat of the moment.

He grabbed her wrist, watery eyes looking up at her in the darkness of her apartment. It wasn’t a tight grip, but a loose, warm one, one she could’ve easily slipped out of if she had wanted to.

“You need something else?” Katie had asked, and he looked away.

“Just... Thanks. Really. I don’t know what’d I’d be doing right now if…” He trailed off, hand dropping away, leaving heated tingles behind. Katie had sighed, looking between her room and him.

“You’re welcome. See you later.”

“Yeah. See you.”

Katie let out a sigh, glancing down at her wrist. It wasn’t important. He was just thanking her. And she had eight more questions, eight questions she should answer before she just passed out right here from exhaustion.

The time ticked slowly, but by question 95, she gave up and threw the last five answers to the wolves. She could spare five. She was confident she could spare five. And she filtered out of the classroom, giving her professor a tired smile and a farewell before trotting down the steps, a yawn escaping her, one that conveyed both her exhaustion and relief.

At least the exam was over with.

Lance, however, was an entirely different problem she couldn’t study for.

And it was a problem, when she came back to her car and found him in the driver’s side. Annoyance clawed at the back of her mind, and she popped open the door, forcing Lance to look at her. He beamed.

“How was the test?”

“Why are you sitting behind the wheel?”

“Because you look tired.”

She sputtered, hand tightening around the door frame. “O-of course I’m tired. That doesn’t explain anything.”

“Explanation? Okay, you’re definitely going to crash this car if you drive. So I’ll drive.”

“You don’t even have your license on you.”

“What? It’s not like I can’t drive--”

“You parked in a tow zone.”

Lance faltered, his expression sobering. For a moment, it seemed like she won, that he’d return to the passenger side, and she felt the pride rising in her chest--

“That was one time.”

A harrowed sigh escaped her.

“Please, for the love of god, Lance, I can drive.”

“And I’m saying you can’t. It’s my word against yours.”

“I’m sorry, who’s the person with the car here?”

He blinked, unfazed, leaning back in the seat, a grin forming on his lips.

“Well, from the looks of it, I’m the one with the car.”

And without a second thought, Katie switched to her completely foolproof plan B, one that has worked in countless battles against Matt.

She shrugged, climbed into the seat, Lance’s surprised yelp music to her ears as she planted herself on top of him.

“You’re-- are you serious?!”

“You wouldn’t get up.” She leaned back into him, placing her hands on the wheel. Any minute now. Any minute now, and Katie would regain control of the situation.

“Actually,” Oh no. “I wanna see if we can drive like this without getting caught.”

She wanted to scream, actually. Was she intrigued? Absolutely. Was she going to let him know she was quite interested in finding out how far they could take her car before someone noticed and pulled them over?

Absolutely not. Because then Lance would win.

“We’re not doing that.”

“Then get off my lap.” He gave her a weak shove, and paused as he did, like he couldn’t resist a good joke. “Weird, never thought I’d ever say that line.”

She steeled herself. Katie was a lot of things, but she wasn’t a quitter after a bad joke.

“Unless you let me drive my car, Lance, we’re not going anywhere near that girl’s apartment and you’re going to have to live without your shoes for the rest of your life.”

“You know what? I think I can buy new shoes.”

She elbowed him. He had the audacity to laugh.

“Okay! Okay, I’ll surrender.”

“Thank you.”

“But if we die, don’t make me say ‘I told you so.’”

“We’re not gonna die,” she said, shifting as Lance squeezed out from under her and leapt across the hood of her car (to her annoyance) and back into the passenger seat. He shrugged.

“Famous last words.”

Katie rang the doorbell a third time.

Silence.

She looked aimlessly to where Lance was sitting in the car, leaning out the window, staring right at her with an anxious expression.

“I don’t think she’s home.” Katie said, shrugging at him. Lance groaned.

“Great. As if my day couldn’t have gotten worse.”

“Hey, chin up! At least you still have…”

She paused.

Well, he didn’t have much of anything right now.

“Your hands?”

Lance groaned, a hand running down the side of his face, deflating in defeat as Katie took the apartment steps two at a time to meet him at his rolled down window.

“I can’t believe she’s not here.”

“Weirdly enough, Lance, people don’t revolve their entire existences around you,” Katie said, leaning against the side of her car. “She’s probably got more important things to do than hope against all hope her dreamboat of a date would come back into her life.”

His head popped back up.

“You think I’m a dreamboat?”

“The bigger picture, Lance.”

He deflated again, letting out a hard sigh, eyes flicking down to stare at his hands.

“Sorry. I just… Christ. I’m an idiot. She probably feels terrible, and thinks I’m an asshole, and I wasn’t even trying to be an asshole, and to top it off,” he waved a weak hand at Katie, frowning. “I got you, a total stranger, involved. And fuck, I won’t blame her if she doesn’t ever want to see me again, and I know you definitely don’t want to see me again...”

Katie was already feeling a little more than sorry for the guy. And even worse that she wasn’t entirely sure how to reassure him. She wasn’t a people person, that much was clear. Her goal at university was to pass her classes and get through the years and graduate with honors. Her goal wasn’t to make a bunch of friends or party or do anything that wasn’t studying because Katie had a degree to get and science to discover. She wasn’t entirely sure how to deal with someone like Lance in the first place, anyway. Especially when he was right about that last part. The girl in the apartment probably hated his guts for all the right reasons. And she definitely wasn’t interested in continuing her relationship, or whatever this was, with Lance.

Yet, here she was.

She leaned back against her car, facing away from him, back up towards the building, remembering how just last night Lance was doing jumping jacks out here.

“Look,” Katie began. “Sometimes, life throws you curveballs for a reason. And sure, this is probably the worst day of your life, Lance, but you can mope all you want, or like…”

She thought about her friend, Shiro. What he would probably say.

“... Learn to be a better version of you that last night’s Lance would be proud of.”

She stopped, glancing him from the side, surprised to find deep blue eyes staring at her intensely, expression unreadable. Katie gulped under the scrutiny, unsure if he was going to call her out, or what.

“Besides,” she blurted quickly, feeling the heat rising on her face, forcing a brilliant smile at him. “I’ve seen you in your underwear. I think we’re a little past strangers at this point.”

That made him smile.

“Thanks, Pidge,” he said it softly, gratitude laced into every word.

“Don’t mention it.” She patted the passenger door, taking a step back, putting distance between herself and him. “I’m going to try the door again.”

“Hey, if it doesn’t work, we can always break in!” He beamed, giving her a thumbs up. Katie rolled her eyes.

“That’s a terrible suggestion. I’ll remember it, but I’ll also remember it’s terrible.”

She tried again, ringing the doorbell despite the futility of the situation. The girl clearly wasn’t home--

“Good god, what do you want?!”

Or she was, and was just blatantly ignoring the frantic button pushing. Pidge winced at the static that came with the voice.

“Uh. Hi. My friend left his stuff here last night--”

“I’m stopping you there. First, his stuff’s in the dumpster in the alley. Second, you can tell him to get screwed.”

She refrained from pointing out the obvious fact that Lance did get screwed.

But at least she knew where his stuff was.

“Uh, he says he’s sorry and feels like an asshole. His car got towed.”

“Good.”

“I should repeat the part where he’s super sorry?”

A crackle from the other side.

“I said, tell him to get screwed.”

Katie frowned, a sinking feeling in her chest. Of course, she didn’t expect this to end well for him or the mystery girl.

But she still kind of hoped it would.

“Last thing,” Katie said. “I… I hope you meet someone who treats you how you deserve. Sorry about my friend. He’s an idiot. But… he’s trying.”

A pause. She wondered if the girl walked away.

Another crackle.

“We’re all trying. Goodbye.”

Katie stepped back, shoulders drooping.

We’re all trying, huh.

Slow, she took the steps one at a time, this time, until she was back at Lance, who perked up as she got closer.

“You were talking to her?”

“Yeah. She hates you.”

Lance nodded. “I… yeah, I think I figured as much.”

A beat passed in silence, as Katie walked around to the driver’s side, glad to sit down inside her car. Lance coughed.

“She didn’t say anything mean to you?”

Katie shook her head. “Not particularly.”

“Okay. I’m glad she didn’t take it out on you.”

Right. Katie sat up, hands on the wheel. “She definitely took it out on you, though.”

“How so?”

“How do you feel about dumpster diving?”

#plance #pidgance #pop psych fic #amaje fics #SORRY IF UR ON MOBILE I HOPE THE READ MORE WORKED SKJDKJSJK #i was ghostvinyls!

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