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Hunk was minding his own business enjoying his lunch when a girl sat down across from him.
"Hey Hunk, how's it going?" Hunk looked up.
"Oh, hey Lucy. Um, just a roast beef and cheddar cheese sandwich, some tomatoe slices, a little lettuce and some homemade horseradish sauce I made last night. Nothing fancy." Hunk answered, Lucy laughed.
"Oh yeah, that sounds real simple." She teased. "Ready for that big history test today? I heard it's killer." Hunk had forgotten about the test and started to panic.
"Crap! I forgot about it! Oh man I'm so gonna fail it." He moaned.
"Relax, it's not that big a deal." Lucy reassured.
"What are you talking about? Of course it is! Oh man, I'm gonna fail and then I'm gonna flunk out and-"
"Seriously dude, chill out. If it's freaking you out that much I might have to give you one of my cigs." She responded. At this, Hunk completely lost his composure.
"What? Are you crazy?!" He exclaimed.
"No, but you might be. Don't worry about it, I'll cover for you and maybe it'll help you chill out a little." She said.
"No thanks, I'd rather not get cancer." Hunk stated firmly, Lucy rolled her eyes.
"Do you really have to be so uptight about everything?" She asked, but Hunk stood his ground. "Fine, whatever. Wimp." She finally got up and left, Hunk glaring at her back.
"And then, after all that! She calls me a wimp! After SHE sat down across from ME. The nerve of some people!" Hunk is at home stress baking and venting to Pidge after school.
"Did you say anything?" Pidge asked from her spot on the counter.
"What do you mean?" Hunk asked confusedly.
"She called you a wimp, did you have a comeback?" Pidge elaborated. Hunk sighed.
"No, I didn't want to start something." He answered and paused, looking at the tray of peanut butter cookies he was about to put in the oven and looked back up at Pidge. "Do you think I'm a wimp?"
"No! Of course not." She reassured. Hunk smiled.
"Thanks Pidge." He said.
"You are a little... uptight, though." She continued.
"What?" Hunk asked.
"I mean you do kinda play it safe and when bad stuff happens you just kinda..." She trailed off, not wanting to finish. Well too bad, Hunk wasn't gonna let her.
"I kinda what, Pidge?" He questioned accusingly.
"Well, let's just say that you're probably more likely to be a damsel in distress than the knight in shining armor in emergencies." She finished.
"Oh." Hunk said. "I didn't know you felt that way."
"I'm sorr-"
"It's fine, don't worry about it." Hunk replied, putting the cookies into the oven with a little more force than necessary. Pidge let out a defeated sigh.
"I guess I'll get going. See you tomorrow?" She asked hopefully.
"Maybe, I have a project with a guy from my US history class we need to work on tommorow." Hunk replied, Pidge looked even more defeated.
"Oh, I guess I'll just see you whenever then. Bye." Pidge said, heading out the door.
"See you later, Pidge."
Hunk is looking for the books for his next class in his locker, but something catches his attention.
"Hey you gonna come hang out with us after school?" It was Lucy again, talking to another girl. He couldn't remember her name.
"Wouldn't miss it." The other girl (Cara? Carol?) answered her.
"Great. We're going to this cool little shack a couple of miles into the desert outside town." Lucy replied.
"Cool, are you bringing the stuff?" She asked.
"Of course, I always do." Lucy answered. They walked by and Hunk tried to act inconspicuous.
Hunk is on his way out of the diner he and Bob were working on their project in. Conversation had gone from talk about their project to an increasingly intense debate about a fan theory Bob has about last night's episode of the latest Star Trek show. The discussion was making Hunk miss Lance, because this is just the kind of crazy ridiculous theory he would come up with.
"All I'm saying is- Holy cow! Is that place on fire?!" Bob exclaimed, and Hunk looked where Bob was frantically pointing. There was a shack about a mile away and it was indeed on fire. Hunk felt his anxiety start to come to the surface when he remembered something. Lucy had said her and her friends were going to a shack about a mile away from town. Hunk silently thanked both his past self and Keith for the many paranoia-fueled fire safety and rescue themed rants Keith went on. Lance and Pidge thought it was silly that he actually listened to Keith when he got like that, but now he's really REALLY glad he did.
"Bob call 911! Please! Let them know that there's a fire about a mile out from here and they'll probably need an ambulance!" Hunk shouted checking his beat up pick-up truck for the emergency first aid kit he keeps for this reason, it's there.
"How did- Nevermind, not the time." Bob started dialing, to Hunk's relief, and Hunk got in the truck and got going. Hunk started speeding towards the shack.
"Please don't crash! Please don't crash! Please don't crash! Please don't crash!" He pleaded under his breath. He didn't crash, thankfully, and reached the shack in record time. He started going through the checklist Keith had talked about a couple dozen times and was relieved to realize that since the shack was surrounded by sand on all sides with no brush in sight it shouldn't spread. Next he checked for life signs and his anxiety started creeping back up when he realized he heard movement from inside. Crap, someone was in there! Hunk started talking himself through the problem. 'Okay, help is on the way, but it's probably at least half an hour away. My first aid kit is pretty heavy-duty and it's completely stocked. Can I get in there to help? Probably. I've got a thick jacket and my combat boots on, if I have to kick the door down I won't hurt my foot too badly. Hopefully. I've got my bandana some water, if I soak my bandana and cover my face with it it'll probably keep the worst of the smoke out. Hopefully. Okay, here I go.' Hunk gets his bandana carefully soaked so he doesn't waste water and covers his face with it.
"Okay, gonna kick the door down. It's on fire, I'm going to kick a flaming door down, it's fine, great. Okay, one two-" CRASH! "SHOOT! OW OW OW OW! That hurt! I can't believe I just did that! Okay, whoo. Anyone in here?! Are you okay?!" Hunk shouted into the room and was met with silence. "Seriously? Did I just do all that for-" Hunk cuts himself off when through the smoke he saw a closet door. He groaned. "You've gotta be kidding me." He positioned himself in front of the door. His foot was killing him! "Okay, one more time. One two-" CRASH! "Shoot! Shoot! Crap! OW! Why?! Okay, alright, is someone- whoa." Hunk looked down at the (hopefully) unconscious form of Lucy. "This is fine. This is fine. This is- okay, um, I guess I'll just-" Hunk picked Lucy up, and threw her over his shoulder in a fireman's carry as gently as he could. "Okay, this is okay. Let's get the heck out of here." Hunk said mostly to himself and made his way out with Lucy as fast as he possibly could with an almost-definitely injured foot and an entire person to carry. He collapsed a few feet away from the wrecked door and was thoroughly relieved to see that the firetruck along with the ambulance were making there way up the crude driveway. Thank goodness, he REALLY did not want to find out how well he remembered his emergency first aid when he was this out of it, within a couple of seconds he passed out.
Hunk came to in a hospital bed, his foot bandaged and splinted. He blinked his eyes blearily and tried to sit up, when a small but strong hand pushed him back.
"Easy Hunk, you're gonna puke if you sit up too fast." Pidge. It was Pidge sitting beside his hospital bed. His eyes focused.
"What's going on? What happened?" Hunk asked, still out of it.
"You mean you don't remember your daring rescue?" Pidge teased, but it didn't reach her eyes. "Just give yourself a minute, I'm sure you'll remember." Hunk took a deep breath, in for five, hold for three, out for five. It all came back and suddenly he was alert.
"Where's Lucy? Is she okay?" He asked, in a panic.
"Hey hey, hold on. She's fine, she's got some injuries, something about her vocal cords I think? But she's fine, thanks to you." Pidge added the last part barely above a whisper, and Hunk let out a sigh of relief. Pidge opened her mouth to say something, and closed it, then took a deep breath and sighed, scratching the back of her neck nervously. "Hunk, I... I'm sorry about what I said. You know, about you being a damsel in distress. I didn't mean it, I thought I did at the time, but... Anyway, it's clearly not true. You're nobody's damsel, even when you're distressed."
"It's okay, I understand. And besides, you were right about the fact that I play it safe a little too much." Hunk reassured and Pidge got a look on her face.
"But it's not! I mean, you do play it safe a lot. But it's not a bad thing!" Pidge rushed to explain, Hunk was confused.
"What do you mean?" Hunk asked.
"I mean we have a pretty decent-sized group that includes Keith, Lance, Shiro, Matt, and I. At least one of us should have some common sense, and let's face it, the rest of us aren't getting any anytime soon. You give so much to our group that it's easy to forget that one of the most important things you do is actually having some sense self-preservation. I think it's safe to say it's a unique trait among our group. I'm sorry I forgot." Pidge finished with a sigh.
"It really is okay, I'm used to having Lance around to vent to and you know Lance. I'd start talking about what was bothering me and he'd just immediately jump to my defense, no questions asked, whether he knew what I was talking about or not. Since he's been at the Garrison, I guess I've been having some separation anxiety." Hunk confessed.
"Speaking of our favorite idiot boy-" Hunk raised an eyebrow. "Okay, one, of our favorite idiot boys, he's called you like fifty times since your mom called him, by the way."
"What?! Why didn't you say anything?" Hunk asked.
"I knew that once you got on the phone with him you'd be on for hours and I needed to say my peace. Sorry." She said sheepishly.
"Would you mind handing me my phone?" Hunk asked, and she did. He dialed Lance's number and it rang for all of half a beep before he picked up.
"Hunk! Are you okay?! Are you hurt?! Did they have to- wait, is this even Hunk? Pidge if that's you calling on Hunk's phone to give me another heart attack so-"
"Lance! It's okay, it's me. I'm alright, I think I messed up my foot a little but it'll be okay. Sorry for giving you a heart attack." Hunk told Lance with a wince, but he couldn't help but smile. He missed his best friend. Lance let out a loud sigh of relief.
"Well, that's good. What happened anyway? Did some guy beat you up? If they did I will march down there and take them down!" Lance ranted, unintentionally proving Hunk's earlier point. Pidge put him on speakerphone.
"All five feet and three inches of you." Pidge stated dryly and Lance spluttered.
"I am five foot five now, thank you very much! Which is taller than both you AND Mullet, by the way!" Lance defended himself.
"And both of us could still beat you in a fight." Pidge egged him on and Lance practically growled. Someone else sighed on the other end of the line.
"Do you have to egg him on Pidge?" Evidently the unidentified sigher was Keith, who sounded kind of exhausted right now.
"But it's so funny and easy!" Pidge answered.
"That's because you don't have to live with him! I'm gaining a whole new respect for Rachel McClain every day." Keith stated. Yeah, he definitely sounded tired.
"As you should!.. Hey!" Lance exclaimed, offended and Pidge was practically falling out of her seat she was laughing so hard. Come to think of it, she looked exhausted too. How worried had they been?
"Wait, wait, I thought you and Lance weren't roommates anymore. Didn't you get reassigned because of..." Vague hand gestures. "You know?"
"Yeah, but they put us back together once the second half of the school year started." Keith explained. "So... What happened?" It Hunk a minute to realize that Keith was asking him.
"Oh uh, so after Bob and I realized we weren't going to get anything else done on our project we decided to wrap up after we finished our food. He was talking about the newest episode of the new Star Trek series-" Hunk started.
"You're getting a little off topic." Pidge started but was interrupted by Lance, unsurprisingly.
"Oh man, seriously?! Have you heard about this new theory going around about how-"
"Who's Bob?" Keith asked, sounding thoroughly confused.
"Sorry, um, Bob's my classmate in US history, we have a project together." Hunk can practically hear Keith's nod. "Anyway, on our way out, he saw a fire about a mile out from the diner we were at. He called 911 and before I knew it I'd driven to the shack that was on fire. I went through your checklist Keith, thanks for that." Hunk could barely hear Keith's quiet 'no problem' but it was filled with pride. "I realized someone was inside and one led to another I kicked the door."
"Whoa! Seriously?! That is soo cool! I mean not that hurt your foot but..." Lance trailed off.
"Ouch. That must've been painful." Hunk could hear Keith's wince as he said that. It'd been a rough year, couple of years really for him.
"Yeah, it was pretty bad. But, long story short, I found a girl in the closet." Lance snickered and Keith smacked him. Don't ask Hunk how he knows what that sounds like over the phone. "And I carried her out as fast as I could. Pretty sure I passed out after that, now I'm here."
"Aw man! I can't believe you did something so cool and I'm not here for it." Lance whined. Hunk is about 99.9% sure Keith is pinching the bridge of his nose.
"We're glad you're okay, Hunk. That was... Really brave." Keith told him quietly. Hunk blushed.
"Thanks Keith."
Hunk and his mom were getting him signed out the next day, when he thought of something.
"Hey mom, I need to take care of something real quick." Hunk asked.
"Okay, but don't go too far or take too long. I don't know about you, but I'm ready to get out of here." She was bone-tired from the past 24 hours.
"Don't worry, I won't." Hunk said, and made his way to his destination. He knocked on the door, then walked in. "Hey Lucy."