It looked a lot like her room back home. About what he would have expected. Within a statistically acceptable margin of error, of course.

In the vast unpredictability of space, that margin got bigger and bigger.

And right now, there was no place he'd rather have been than that quirky little space where she'd planted herself. The papers on the walls, the layers of life accumulating. A place that she'd come to love.

They sat there for a while. They didn't have time to do that, but they did it anyway.

It was like those late nights at home, when she came into his room after a nightmare.

It was both of their nightmares now. They'd be stepping back into it just outside the door.

But he loved her more than anybody else in the universe and he needed this more than anything. The room, the time, and THEM.

There was no bigger reason to fight this fight. He could stand dying after this.

They talked about everything. Just like they did back home. Things that didn't matter, and things that wouldn't have mattered to anyone ELSE.

Things that mattered because of that alone.

"I've picked up a lot of neat stuff on a lot of alien frequencies," Pidge said. "Course, we're way too far away to get anything from Earth."

"Not even on the Altean tech, huh?"

"Nope," Pidge shook her head.

She looked away and wiped a tear from her cheek.

"Hey," he put a hand on her. "You okay?"

She closed her eyes and laughed, just a little bit.

"I haven't been feeding your Neopets."

Matt smiled and hugged her close. She was going to start him crying, too. But it was impossible to care.

"Fuck my Neopets."