Someone asked for me to write about Pidge's funeral... This is before the events of the rest of the story, so there is a TS between this and the first chapter.

Shiro sat in the back of the church, uncomfortable and wishing he didn't have to attend. He wasn't being disrespectful. But the funeral made it real. He hadn't spent much time with any of the others since her death, so he was able to convince himself that she, too, was catching up with her family.

But now that he was here, there was no denying it. After seeing her last night...

The calling hours were the worst. All these people he didn't know, all of them saying that they knew what he felt. They couldn't know how he felt.

In her last minutes, he had failed to protect her. And in her last minutes, she had attempted to cheer him up.

Seeing her body the previous night was earth-shattering. She looked like she was just sleeping, like one of the rare moments after they rescued her when she wasn't having a nightmare.

When he felt her hand, however, it was tough and cold, colder than he had expected. He took a deep breath, trying not to think about that. Matt placed a hand on his shoulder, as he had decided to sit next to Shiro instead of in the front with his parents.

"It's okay." He whispered, glancing up at the coffin in front of the pews. It was gold plated with green flower accents, assembled especially for her, only days after her death. Shiro liked it, but he didn't want to think about what was inside of it. Despite his best efforts, he still thought of the small girl, laying lifelessly inside of the suffocatingly small box, her glasses perched carefully on the tip of her nose...

"It's not okay." Shiro whispered back, wiping away the tears streaming down his face. "And that's okay." Matt nodded at his friend's words, pulling him into an unexpected embrace.

"You were there for her, Shiro, when I couldn't be. I just wish I could have been there, been somewhere different."

"Do you want to know the difference between you and me?" Shiro said softly.

"What difference is there?" Matt answered bitterly, staring at the floor.

"I lost a friend and you lost a sister. I think that's the only one left at this point." Shiro said, looking again at the coffin.

"I said, what difference is there?" Matt repeated, looking back up at Shiro, who smiled bitterly at him.

"She won't ever be forgotten. Do you know how many celebrities tried to get here?" Shiro said.

"There were only three, Shiro."

"So you do know how many." Shiro said playfully, getting Matt to smile for a second.

"Why didn't you sit with the other three? They need you." Matt said, looking at Keith, Lance and Hunk. All of them had their heads down, and Lance and Keith had finally seemed to set aside their rivalry in light of Pidge's departure. But I'm not the person they need. Shiro thought. They need someone who can comfort them and tell them that everything is alright, and I don't want to lie to them.

"I'm going to check in with them later." Shiro said vaguely, looking at the ground.

"That's okay." Matt said looking at the ceiling. He sniffled quietly, and the woman next to him passed him a tissue.

"She was a lot of things to a lot of people." Someone said, and Shiro looked up. He saw Lance at the podium, and he had to check to program to make sure that Lance hadn't snuck onstage just to talk about Pidge. Wouldn't be the first time in the past few weeks.

"She was a daughter. A sister, a student, a friend, a paladin, a fighter, a hero. She was brilliant, too. She asked me once how I thought an extremely advanced alien robot sphere floated, and I answered, 'Is this a trick question?'" The audience chuckled, and Shiro smiled. He remembered how upset she was when she was told it was thousands of mini-thrusters and not some advanced gravity harvesting technique.

"Thank you, Lance McClain." The preacher said, nodding as Lance sat back down in the audience with Keith and Hunk. The preacher called several names, including Matt and Shiro.

"It's time." Shiro said quietly, making his way down to the coffin with Matt at his side. "Are they burying her?"

"No." Matt answered quietly. "They're going to put her in a mausoleum at the cemetery."

"Makes sense." Shiro responded, looking at the intricate patterns on the coffin. Again he tried in vain not to think of the girl inside.