#may or may not clean this up a bit further before adding it to ao3/squidgeworld

[kitkatt0430]

Lance was, perhaps, not the most observant guy in the universe. He acknowledges this fact, accepts that's a thing about himself. It's fine, he's still a cool guy for the most part.

Still, he was pretty shocked about the whole 'Pidge is a girl actually' thing. Not because there weren't, like... signs. Which Lance did, in fact, pick up on. He has sisters; he can, in fact, recognize when a person with a uterus is having a bad week and needs chocolate to stave it off. He has, in fact, bribed Pidge with chocolate to calm the hell down a few times since he - she, gotta remember that now, she's a she who hers - was assigned to the same team as himself and Hunk. (It's been more than a few times and Lance maybe wishes he'd thought to stop Blue off at a convenience store to buy a few cases of Pidge's favorite chocolates before blasting off into space.)

But... having a period does not make someone a woman. Or girl. Whatever. It just made them someone who possessed a uterus.

So this whole time Lance had just been assuming that Pidge was a trans dude. Or trans masc with a preference for he/him pronouns. But, like, apparently she's just pulling the 'Princess disguises herself as a man' routine, except she's not the Princess in this story. She's the genius inventor/mechanic. Which is just as important as being a princess, not that Lance is going to share that nugget of wisdom with actual-princess Allura.

And the annoying thing is no one else apparently came to this extremely obvious conclusion that Pidge was just trans and so he's the only one who is just... confused that he - she, dammit - is not in fact a guy. It's a little annoying really.

(When Pidge comes out a few months later as nonbinary with a preference for she/him pronouns, Lance finally explains the whole 'trans guy' assumption. Because it turns out he was actually right. Mostly anyway.

Pidge - I hate to say it but... Lance was right. I'm not a girl.

Lance - Hah! I'm allowed to be right sometimes, ya know?

Keith - Only once a blue moon.

Lance - ... was that a Lion pun?

Pidge - *giggling*

Keith - ... maybe.

Meanwhile Shiro and Hunk are explaining human gender as a social concept to Allura and Coran who are relating it to Altean social concepts that are at once both similar and very much not. Apparently they've been letting the humans use whatever pronouns seem appropriate due to translation convention - it's not like human languages have the right pronouns for their actual genders anyway.)