Tangled Plance (AU)

Part 4

The tunnel was completely dark besides the dim light radiating off of the lantern they found. "Well isn't this great." Pidge said sarcastically, eyeing some skeletons that littered the passageway.

Lance watched her as she examined the walls of the secret tunnel. Something about her... intrigued him. Whether it was the fact that she dressed like a boy or the fact that she's wanted for something or the way her light brown eyes shine like honey in the lantern... he couldn't tell.

"So, Pidge. Where are you from?" He asked walking up close to her. Pidge jumped when she noticed how close he was and was this close to jabbing him in the stomach again, but refrained from doing so. "No, no, no. I don't do backstory." She said, not even looking at him and pretending not to noticed how close he was still standing.

"Though I am starting to become interested in yours." She said with a mischievous wiggle of her eyebrows. "I know that for whatever reason I'm not supposed to talk about the hair, or the mother." Pidge continued, which Lance nodded in agreement with.

"But, I'm curious as to why you need me to take you to see the lions." She admitted. "Why haven't you gone before?"

"Well- I uh-" Lance started, looking for the right words. "Well its not important." He finally said, folding his arms. "What I want to know is why you're wanted, Dead or Alive." He said with a dramatic swish of his hands.

"I already told you. I don't do backsto-" She started to retort before a sudden rumble caught her attention. It felt like footsteps were approaching... and a lot of them.

"Um... Lance. We gotta move." She said, grabbing onto his wrist and pulling him further down the tunnel. They both looked back to see that some familiar faces from the Snuggly Duckling were chasing them again, as well as several castle guards. Ezor, Zethrid and Sendak, just to name a few. Pidge let out a dramatic groan.

"What did you do?" Lance asked again as he continued running, bundling up as much of his hair as he could in his one available arm to avoid tripping.

The girl merely groaned in response before noticing something very unfortunate; they had hit a dead end. "Quiznak." Lance and Pidge mumbled in unison. They looked at each other, sharing a quick nod, before quickly flipping around. Pidge's bayard was activated and Lance had his hair ready to use as a whip. A battle ensued; weapons, hair and curses flying throughout the mess. The short convict and the long-haired flirt were quickly getting overwhelmed and they both somehow decided escaping was their best option. Communicating with their eyes and dramatic wiggles of the eyebrows, the duo simultaneously attached their hair or bayard respectively to a stalactite above them and swung past the horde of people. Once on the other side, they began running. Pidge tried to ignore the pain throbbing from several parts of her body from where weapons had hit and cut her.

"That was awesome!" Pidge cheered as they continued running. Lance noticed a narrow passage to the left and suddenly took Pidge's hand and dragged her to the passage. His hand felt wet after grabbing hers but he just assumed it was sweat.

Pidge felt a tight squeeze to her hand and yelped in pain. Lance felt his heart jump hearing his new companion in pain and wanted to stop to see what was wrong. But, knew that the best course of action was to get to the end of the passageway, where he could see the forest.

Immediately as the two of them exited the cave into the cool forest, Lance flipped around to look at Pidge. "Are you okay?" He asked worriedly. She felt her cheeks heat up ever so slightly at how much he... cared?

"I'm fine. It's just-" She began, showing him the deep cut in her hand. Blood came slowly seeping out of it, tracing her wrist with crimson.

"Oh." Lance said thinking of what to do. Well, he knew what he needed to do but it involved giving up his secret. But that didn't matter, what mattered more was making sure Pidge was okay. "Come on. I have something to show you."