Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

No POV:

Lance felt his lungs burn as he ran through the forest. But he didn’t stop or look back, knowing the Galra were right on his tail. How could such a simple mission have this outcome?

Hunk was dead, Lance saw it happen before his eyes.

Lance was almost certain Pidge was dead by the way they screamed and their com became silent.

Keith was dead, Lance knew because Shiro was with him and told everyone over coms.

Now it was just him and Shiro. But for all he knew Shiro could be dead too, Shiro hadn’t spoken in minutes.

Lance stopped as he heard a huge explosion in the sky, looking up to the castle of lions nowhere. Where it was before was just a bunch of debris. Lance fell to his knees and started sobbing, having to set a hand on a tree next to him before he fell over.

Lance didn’t know how this had happened. And he honestly no longer cared for the Galrans chasing him. He didn’t get up to move as the yelling and feet got closer. He didn’t move when they yelled that they found him. He didn’t move when he felt a gun blaster set on his temple. He didn’t move when the gun went off; and he never moved again.

Lance awoke with sweat all over his face, his heart pumping at a fast pace. Lance sat up and looked around to realize he was in his bedroom at the castle of lions. Was it all a dream? Pidge, Hunk, Keith, Allura, Coran all dying? Was it just merely a nightmare?

Lance sighs and sets a hand on his chest to try and calm down, not at all surprised when he felt his heart beating so fast. Lance swung his legs over the bed and mentally prepared himself to go get some coffee and stay up until it was time to train.

Lance looked at the clock Pidge made and realized it was only 1am, hours before he usually got up from a nightmare. Lance hummed to himself in thought and went to his bathroom to do his morning routine and get ready for the day. Just because he woke up from a nightmare didn’t mean he was going to skip his healthcare. He didn’t want a repeat of the last time he skipped a routine.

Once Lance was ready he walked over to the kitchen and started to brew some coffee. Lance didn’t notice Shiro sitting at the dinning table from how tired he was from the very rude awakening.

Lance flinches as he feels a hand on his shoulder, elbowing the person behind him out of reflex. He was not playing around after that nightmare. Shiro gunts and bends over slightly as Lance elbows him in the gut, “Ow.”

Lance gasps and looks guilty, “Oh my god, Shiro! I’m sorry. But also, don’t sneak up on people at one in the morning.” Shiro nods his head and takes a deep breath.

“Good elbow.” Shiro says, and Lance feels his cheeks heat up a bit from the compliment from Shiro and nods his head in response. (This ain’t meant to be a ship, kinda just like y’know getting praise from your hero/leader? I mean ship it if ya want tho.)

“What are you doing up so early?” Lance asks and goes back to making his coffee, making sure to have enough for two cups so Shiro can have some too.

“I could ask you the same question.” Shiro replies and crosses his arms as he leans back against the counter.

Lance hums, “I’m making some coffee since I couldn’t sleep.” Shiro’s eyes narrow slightly since he knew that was used as an excuse by most people when they have a nightmare, himself included.

“Lance,” Shiro waits until Lance looks at him to continue, “you know you can always tell me anything, right?” Lance nods his head but hesitates to respond.

Lance then sighs, “I had a nightmare..” Shiro was glad Lance decided to open up about it to him.

“You wanna talk about it?” Shiro asks and grabs the coffee Lance hands him.

Lance shakes his head with a sigh. “It just felt really real.. Like everything in it was actually happening in that moment.” Lance said and then took a ship of his coffee.

Shiro nods his head, “I get that. Sometimes it can just feel so real, only for you to wake up in your bed.” Lance hums. It wasn’t a secret that Shiro got nightmares, so he wasn’t surprised Shiro could relate to the feeling and know exactly what he was talking about.

Shiro and Lance sat on the couch together and put on something Alteans used to watch, it was sort of like a movie, but in holograms. Lance set his head on Shiro’s shoulder and Shiro wrapped an arm around Lance.

That’s how Coran found them in the morning, all cuddled up together with the ‘movie’ still on repeat.

Chapter Text

Still no POV, like all my fics are nowadays

Lance flinches as the sound of the bots stopped suddenly, realizing he hit Keith by accident instead of the bot he was aiming for. Lance started walking over to Keith to make sure he was okay before he was stopped by Allura.

“Lance! You just killed Keith in the simulation, what if that was what actually happened?! We would be down the red paladin, and it would be all your fault!” Allura shouted at Lance. Lance kept his face neutral, not wanting to show how hurt he was by Allura’s words.

“I didn’t mean to, I just got distracted.” Lance replied, glancing over at Keith to try and see if he was hurt or not. Luckily it didn’t seem like there was any damage to Keith except maybe a small bruise or two. Lance smiles as he sees Hunk help Keith up.

“What are you smiling for Lance?! That action could cause a mission’s jeopardy if it actually happened!” Allura continued her yelling at Lance. Lance’s face fell as he saw everyone leave him to deal with her yelling alone.

Eventually Coran came up to her, setting a hand on her shoulder. “Easy princess, you don’t need to yell at the young lad anymore.” Coran said with a smile.

Allura sighs, but nods her head. “I expect better of you next time.” Allura quickly left after her words, the sound of her heels slowly fading away. Now it was just Coran and Lance in the training deck. (Training room, deck, bay thingy???)

“It’s alright lad, we all make mistakes.” Coran set a hand on Lance’s shoulder. Lance just nodded his head.

“I know, thanks Coran.” Coran gives Lance a smile and leaves him alone.

Lance goes the rest of his day as usual, not showing an ounce of hurt or regret. He helped Hunk make cookies, he helped Pidge find something in their room, and he ate dinner, no one suspected a thing.

Lance even went to bed on time, just wanting the day to be over with. But of course, he could never rest even while asleep.

It was just a simple mission this time. Nothing was out of the ordinary, it wasn’t suspiciously easy, but it wasn’t anything hard. Just a standard mission just like usual. There weren't even any lives on the line this time. (Besides themselves, obviously.)

It should have been easy. But of course, everything always seems to fail.

It started when more Galra than they were prepared for showed up, forcing them to split up in two groups on foot. Hunk and Pidge went together to some sort of electrical room. While Lance, Keith, and Shiro were near the entrance of the building they were in and fighting off Galra. Allura and Coran were providing air support as usual. Everything was normal. Maybe a few more Galra, but nothing they couldn’t handle.

Somehow though, Lance screwed up. He doesn’t know when or how he did. But he did. He only knew he did when suddenly Shiro yelled Keith’s name, who just fell to the ground with a wound on his chest. A wound that came from a gun. A wound that came from Lance’s gun. Lance felt sick to his stomach as he realized he had hit Keith just like the simulation they did earlier.

“Keith’s down!” Shiro shouts, knocking Lance out of his trance for a moment before he starts thinking again.

Keith is down.

Keith is down because of him.

Keith is dead.

Keith is dead because of him.

Lance volts up with a gasp, struggling for a moment to get out of his sheets before he suddenly finds himself on the floor. Lance pants loudly, his heart beating in his ears so loud he thought his eardrums were bursting. Lance sits there for a few moments in silence, the only sound filling the room being his rapid breathing. Lance brings his knees up to his chest as he breathing starts to subtly slow. It takes a few minutes for Lance to calm down enough to get out of bed and get ready for the day.

Lance walks out of his room quiet enough so he doesn’t wake up anyone else, then goes towards the kitchen to make some coffee. Lance has no idea what any of them would do if they didn’t find alien coffee. He was honestly surprised how similar earth and space coffee was, being made with practically the same thing with just slightly different hints of flavor depending on the planet.

Lance stops at the door of the kitchen as he sees Shiro sitting on the counter with some coffee already in his hands. Lance isn’t surprised one bit, but he still hesitates to join Shiro since he doesn’t want to make him uncomfortable. Shiro sighs and looks over at Lance with an encouraging smile, “You know you don’t have to wait for permission to come in, right? The kitchen is for everyone.” Lance blushes in slight embarrassment, nodding his head and walking in.

Lance immediately walks over to the coffee pot and pours himself a cup, not even bothering to add anything in it. Shiro raises an eyebrow as he realizes Lance is drinking his coffee black. “I didn’t know you drank coffee black?” Shiro says, taking a sip of his coffee that definitely had cream and sugar in it.

Lance shrugs and takes a sip of his own coffee, not even wincing at the harsh taste of straight coffee in his mouth. Lance leans on the counter and stares down at his coffee instead of looking at Shiro. They stay in silence as they drink their coffees.

“So..” Lance starts to say, but doesn’t know what he actually wants to say.

“So?” Shiro repeats back with a questioning tone.

“Nightmares?” Lance asks. Shiro sighs and nods his head, knowing it would be futile to try and avoid saying the truth since everyone knows he has nightmares.

“Yeah, you?” Shiro glances at Lance worriedly.

“Mhm.” Lance takes another sip of his coffee. They sit in silence for a few moments longer.

Shiro breaks the silence with a few soft words, “Do you want to talk about it?” Lance freezes. He wants to. But he also doesn’t want to. Lance sighs, preparing himself to talk about what happened since he knows he should. Shiro waits patiently.

“It was about our training earlier today; we were on a mission this time instead though.. And I accidentally hit Keith during it..” Lance gulps, then sighs, and then takes another sip of his coffee. Lance flinches as he feels a hand settle on his shoulder. Lance looks up at Shiro, who looks down at him with a smile.

“You didn’t mean to hit Keith in training today, we all make mistakes.” Shiro says. Lance sighs and grips his mug tightly.

“But my mistake was a big one, it could hurt someone.” Lance replies. Shiro turns Lance to look at him, setting a hand on his other shoulder as well.

“Lance, we all make mistakes, even me and Keith, despite what Keith says.” Shiro and Lance chuckles towards the end of Shiro’s sentence. “What I’m saying is, a mistake is a mistake. Us humans make a lot of them, sometimes the mistakes leave damage to other people instead of just us; and the only thing you can do is apologize and try to fix the mistake.” Shiro’s eyes start to get misty, but Lance doesn’t comment on it.

Lance smiles and nods his head, “Thanks Shiro.” Shiro pats Lance on the back and gets off the counter, setting his now empty mug of coffee in the sink.

“No problem kid.” Shiro says, ruffling Lance’s hair and then leaving him alone in the kitchen.

And if Shiro saw Keith and Lance alone later that day, he didn’t mention it.

Chapter Text

No POV once more:

Voltron was out on a mission. Each group of people had to be on three separate planets at a time, and they had to be there for about a week. The teams were Lance and Shiro, Pidge and Hunk, and Keith was with Allura. Coran stayed on the castle to keep it running and make sure nothing went wrong while everyone was away. He was also the only person who had any contact with all teams, as any contact they had with each other could interfere with the signal catchers between each planets and let the Galra know they were there. As the castle wasn’t on any of the planets and was never contacting multiple teams at once, it was fine for contact. Otherwise they could only contact the other person they were on their assigned planet with.

They were unfortunately not able to have their lions with them on the planets, so they needed to build shelters themselves instead of staying in them. Lance and Shiro were lucky enough to find a small lake surrounded by tall trees. The trees had made almost a dome shape over most of the area, leaving just enough room to make a spotlight that shone onto the lake and gave them light.

It was quite a beautiful place. The tree bark was a soft blue, and the leaves were a periwinkle color. The grass was a light sage green, along with some dark pink moss and algae. The water was a clear-ish orange, which was honestly the only confusing part. Lance could get the soft colors the forest had right now, but orange? Orange just randomly in the mix? The dark pink moss made more sense than orange, and pink was also a hot color!

Lance set up camp while Shiro scouted around the area for advantage points and places to hide if they needed to. Obviously the best place would be under the water since they have oxygen and helmets if they needed to, but it still was good to find more places just in case.

They didn’t need to do too much on the first day they were there, just find a place to camp and make a plan to get into the Galra base.

The plan was to sneak in from the left entrance, as it had harder terrain and the Galra didn’t find the need to guard it as much as the right entrance. They would then make their way to the co-control room and turn off as many cameras as they could without the Galra being suspicious. And then they can extract data when they get to the main control room and they can leave. They would have to wait a week to be picked up, and they had other things to do other than break into this base, but it was good to get some stuff done early so they didn’t have a time crunch.

The two of them decided it would be a good idea to take turns sleeping so someone could be aware of the surroundings at all times. Shiro did let Lance sleep a bit more than the time they decided on for each turn, giving him two hours instead of one and a half. It was partly because he knew he could handle less sleep, and partly because he didn’t like the fact Lance was destroying his sleep schedule for this mission.

Shiro caught himself staring at Lance sleeping. He looked.. Younger. It really made Shiro think about how all the paladins were children when they were brought into this war. He himself was barely a passible adult to some people.

He was about to look away when he saw Lance’s face scrunch up as he let out a soft murmur Shiro had no chance of understanding. Shiro reaches over and almost sets a hand onto Lance’s shoulder to wake him up when Lance shoots up and crawls backwards far away from him with wide eyes. He was panting, and Shiro could see a bit of sweat on the side of his face.

“Woah, kiddo, it’s just me.” Shiro says gently, putting his hands out in front of himself so he looks less threatening.

Lance slowly calms down a bit, “Sh-Shiro?”

Shiro smiles and nods his head. “I’m right here, bud. You alright?” Shiro asks with a worried tone. Realistically he knew Lance wasn’t alright, hell he was probably far from alright because he just had a nightmare. Shiro knew how one would feel right after a nightmare more than most. He still asked anyway of course.

Lance nods his head jerkily, “Y-yeah, I’m fine..” Shiro could tell Lance wasn’t really okay, but he doesn’t say anything about it. Shiro sits next to Lance, their shoulders touching. Lance smiles a bit at the comforting yet small contact.

They stay in silence for a few moments before Shiro asks, “You wanna talk about it?”

Lance doesn’t reply. He doesn’t know if he should tell Shiro about his nightmare, even if he knows Shiro will get him the most about night terrors. Lance felt embarrassed about having a nightmare while he and Shiro were on a mission together. Lance looks away as his cheeks flush a soft shade of pink in embarrassment.

Shiro frowns as he sees the pink tint on Lance’s face. “Hey.. Look at me, Lance.” Shiro says. He doesn’t force Lance to look at him, waiting for Lance to look himself. Lance hesitates a moment as he thinks about the nightmare. The image of Shiro being stabbed by a Galra while in the Galra base they were breaking into tomorrow still fresh in his mind. He sighs and looks over to Shiro.

Shiro smiles as he sees Lance meet his eyes. “You know you don’t need to be embarrassed about it, right?” Shiro questions. He was half asking and half stating. Lance nods his head in response to Shiro’s words. “Good.” Shiro states, wrapping an arm around Lance’s shoulders.

Shiro doesn’t ask Lance to talk about his nightmare again, and the two of them stay up the rest of the night looking at the sky and talking.

Chapter Text

No POV once more:

Shiro roams the halls of the castle. The Altean teal lights dimmed down just enough to help people walk around at night without being blinding bright as they usually are. He hadn’t been able to sleep that night and decided being productive might help him. He talked to Black for a bit before she made him promise he’d try sleeping again. So that brings him back to all the rooms of the paladins, close to each other but far enough that they won't bump into each other leaving their rooms.

He was about to enter his room when he heard a faint sound coming from one of the rooms. The rooms weren’t totally sound proof, but they weren’t thin walls either. Shiro didn’t know if he wanted to be glad about the fact they were almost sound proof or not. On one hand, they kept his nightmares quiet, on the other, there could be a medical emergency and no one would know for a while. Or someone could break into one paladin’s room and it’d be quiet. The walls gave Shiro conflicted feelings.

Shiro walks over to the door with the noise, two rooms down from him. Lance’s room. The noise only got louder when he got closer. Shiro doesn’t bother knocking on Lance’s door, just opening it and walking inside. He relaxes just a bit when he sees no one else in Lance’s room but himself and Lance. He frowns seeing Lance a mess on his bed, screaming his lungs off. Must be a nightmare, Shiro thinks.

Shiro walks over to Lance and crouches down next to the bed. He hesitates, setting a hand onto Lance’s shoulder and gently shakes him. Lance shoots up, his eyes immediately looking over to Shiro. He calms down once he realizes it’s him and sighs softly in relief. (Why does this feel similar to the last chapter-)

Shiro doesn’t ask if he’s alright, he knows he isn’t. He’s seen Lance after bad nightmares. But.. Lance looks different after this one. He looks like Shiro does when he has his nightmares. Shiro’s eyebrows furrow as he examines Lance’s face. His eyes are looking down at his blanket, red and puffy. He looked out of it… Shiro sighs in worry and gently moves Lance’s head with a finger on his jaw so he looks at him.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Shiro asks. Lance immediately shakes his head no at Shiro’s words. “Okay, you don’t have to.” Shiro pats Lance on the knee and smiles up at him from his crouched position. He frowns as Lance curls into himself a bit.

“Scoot over, I’m gonna stay with you tonight.” Shiro says. Lance scoots closer to the wall so Shiro has space to lay down. By now the two of them had spent too many nights together for either of them to be uncomfortable about laying down next to each other. Shiro just wanted to try and help Lance feel a bit safer, realizing Lance always slept better next to people. Maybe it has to do with how many siblings he has, Shiro wonders.

Shiro turns his back to the door, something he never does anymore since he was with the Galra, and hugs Lance gently. Lance hugs him back and buries his face into Shiro’s chest. “Try to sleep a bit, yeah?” Shiro comments with a slight smile. Lance nods his head in response, and the two of them fall asleep.

Shiro wakes up first the next morning. He tries to get up a few times, but Lance doesn’t let go of him easily. Shiro just decides he could stay until Lance wakes up himself. Not like he really has anywhere to be today yet.

Lance surprisingly doesn’t take too long to wake up after Shiro does. Shiro would’ve thought Lance wakes up way later than everyone else because of his nightmares and the fact he’s almost always late to things.

Lance yawns and looks up at Shiro confusedly, “What’re you doin’ in my bed..?” Shiro chuckles and pats Lance’s head before getting out of bed.

“I stayed to help you with your nightmare last night, remember?” Shiro replies with a soft smile. Lance blushes in embarrassment as he remembers what happened after his nightmare.

“Oh, yeah… Thanks for that, by the way.” Lance says with a slight chuckle at the end. He gets up from bed and grabs his clothes from the closet and sets them onto his bed for later, then he goes over to his bathroom and starts his skincare routine while Shiro continues the conversation.

“It was no problem, kiddo. Speaking of your nightmare.. Would you be willing to tell me what it was about now that it’s not fresh?” Shiro asks, leaning on the door frame to the bathroom connected to Lance’s bedroom.

Lance sighs and puts down the towel in his hand, “It was about my dad.”

Shiro’s eyebrows furrow. He never really heard Lance talk about his dad before. He gets a sick feeling in his gut about what Lance’s dad could’ve done to give Lance nightmares, but he tries not to misinterpret what actually happened to give Lance these nightmares though.

“How was it about your dad, Lance?” Shiro asks, taking in a deep breath as he waits for Lance’s answer. Lance doesn’t reply for a few minutes. He just stares at himself in the mirror. Then, he sighs and turns to Shiro.

“It was about him dying.. I had watched him die in front of me when I was younger, guess I still haven’t gotten over it.” Lance answers. He looked disappointed in himself for not being over seeing something he shouldn’t have had to see when he was just a child. He was still a child.

Shiro didn’t think that would be the answer. He expected abuse or something, not.. Not that. Shiro frowns at the look on Lance’s face, “Hey, it’s okay to still not be okay about something like that. You know that, right?” Lance’s shoulders tense a bit at Shiro words, and he sighs.

“I know, Shiro..” Lance replies with a defeated tone. Shiro walks over to him and sets a hand on his shoulder comfortingly. He has to think for a few moments on how to cheer Lance up in some way, or get him to really know it was okay to not be okay.

“You know.. I saw my dad die a few years ago too.” Shiro mentions. Lance looks at him with furrowed eyebrows and a frown. Shiro smiles warmingly, “I found him in his bed, tried CPR and everything, but.. It just wasn’t enough.”

“It wasn’t your fault, Shiro-”

“That’s not the point, Lance. I know it wasn’t my fault. The point is, I have nightmares about that night too. I can barely even think about performing CPR again on somebody because of what happened. I’m not okay from what happened, and that’s alright.”

Lance looks at Shiro with wide eyes, “Oh..”

“Yeah, ‘oh’.” Shiro says in response. Lance immediately hugs Shiro tightly, tears streaming down his face.

“Thank you..” Lance mumbles. Shiro pats his back and nods his head.

“You’re welcome.”

Chapter Text

Do I even need to say it? No POV:

Shiro and Lance duck behind a corner as two sentries walk by. The two of them are in a Galra ship, trying to take it down. The others are in different ships and places, as there are multiple ships they need to take care of, as well as the ground support they have from the planet below them. Hunk and Keith are taking care of the other ship, and Pidge is going after the ground support. 

After the sentries walk past, the two men quietly run out from the corner and continue making their way to the control room. Lance had a small device hidden in one of his pockets that would short circuit the whole thing in three minutes. Pidge made it for them when they weren’t in the same place. Originally, Pidge made it so it short circuited the systems immediately, but Lance had said something about them needing time to get out of the ship before the jets fail and it falls, so Pidge changed it. 

It’s a good thing they did too, as only Pidge could have a lion with them in their mission right now. Green was good at blending in, and Pidge could land a bit away from their scanners and run the rest of the way. But the ships would immediately notice everyone else’s lions and start shooting at them. If they were caught before they shut down the ship’s system, the mission was screwed. 

And that is why Pidge was selected to do the ground facility. Well, that, and the fact the ground facility had more technology in it, so Pidge would need to go so they could shut it down. 

It was a mission they’ve done many times in many different places with various degrees of training. Which meant this mission would be a success, since they are currently at their highest training form at this moment in time. The next one will maybe be better, because they’ll have more training and more practice. That’s just how it was out here in war. The more you train, the more you do something, the better you’ll be at it. Though, Lance supposes that counts for pretty much everything. 

Lance tries to focus his mind back to the mission, trying not to think too hard about why people were chosen for what purpose and why their teams were chosen. 

He and Shiro are close to the control room now. Just two more rights and then the third door on the left and they’re there. They luckily didn’t have too many sentries to worry about in this ship despite how big it was. They had intel that the ships for this planet were not guarded by sentries or Galra as much. Of course, there were still sentries here they had to dodge, but having not as many is great.

Shiro suddenly puts an arm in front of Lance to stop him. “Shiro, what-?” Lance starts saying, but looks in front of them and freezes. Haggar. Haggar is on this ship. That’s why there aren’t as many sentries, because Haggar herself visits this ship and the fleet. Was there something special about this fleet that Voltron didn’t know about? Lance doesn’t even know if Pidge’s system destroying device also collects the data that’s on the ship. If it doesn’t, they could lose valuable information they didn’t even know they would need from this ship. It’d have to be something worth Haggar bothering her time with to come here.

“Haggar…” Shiro mutters. Lance glances at Shiro when he mutters the witch’s name, then looks back at the person in question. She looked just like a corny cartoon villain. Lance thought it was fitting though. Especially since, y’know, she is a villain? (And a cartoon villain at that; but Lance doesn’t know that… Muhahaha..) 

“My champion. To what pleasure do I owe you? Why’re you on this ship, dear champion?” Haggar asks. Her voice sends a chill down Lance’s spine. It was like having wet socks. He can feel Shiro tense up more at the name Haggar says for him. Lance doesn’t like her words either. However, he feels like saying anything about it at this moment will be a bad idea. 

Shiro powers up his arm and glares at the person responsible for giving it to him. He keeps his other arm in front of Lance to create a shield between him and Haggar. Lance looks over at Shiro and then back at Haggar once more. He wasn’t very equipped to fight with the head witch of Zarkon’s army in his opinion, but here he was.. About to fight her. He’ll try his best for Shiro.

Haggar is the one who officially starts the fight, throwing a spell at the two of them. Lance tenses up as he sees a ball of black energy heading towards him and Shiro. He only doesn’t get hit because Shiro knocks him to the floor and covers him with his body. Lance smiles appreciatively up at him, “Thanks, Shiro..” 

“Don’t mention it, kid.” Shiro replies. Then he gets off of Lance and gets into a crouched form next to him, glaring at Haggar who grins back sadistically. Lance takes more time to get into a crouched position next to Shiro, and then also glares at Haggar the best he can. Haggar only raises an eyebrow in his direction. She underestimated him. Lance could try to use that to his advantage... Even if he actually wasn’t that good in his mind. All he needed to do was not psych himself out.

Shiro and lance lock eyes and then Shiro nods. Lance nods back and draws his gun, staying in the crouched position with his shield drawn as well. Haggar hums as if she was delighted that Lance was also participating in the fight. She enjoyed being able to have someone easy to play with in her hold. Maybe she could keep him for later and break his mind. Or maybe she could take him and start farming his quintessence… Blue quintessence was always the most powerful. 

Shiro rushes towards Haggar with his hand raised; but she easily teleports away. Lance shoots at her from where she appears, but she vanishes just before the shots hit her. He was really regretting getting into Blue back on Earth… Rude, a voice echoes in his mind. He sends an apology to his lion and focuses back onto the fight with Haggar.  

Lance felt as if Haggar really was just toying with them at this point. She loved showing off her teleportation skills; vanishing from their sight just as they’re about to hit her with something. Lance’s shots were burning into the walls because of how many times he’s tried shooting and she just disappears. It infuriated him to no end, especially because he took pride in not often missing a shot. He can tell Shiro wasn’t very happy with how Haggar was treating this battle as well. 

The two paladins could tell this was a tactic to try and tire both of them out. Especially Shiro, as he’s the one doing close up at the moment. It was either that tactic, or an attempt to stall them. Lance doubts Haggar would really need to stall them at all though. He figures she could probably just cast some random time spell to slow down or stop time and just come up with a plan. She’d probably do it if she saw Earth movies. Lance stops for a moment and thinks, do aliens have movies like us..? (Pretend they weren’t watching movies in the other chapters, these things don’t have to be connected…) 

He can ask Coran later, right now he needs to shoot Haggar in somehow not a lethal spot but also a spot that will weaken her enough.. And that’s after he has to figure out how to actually shoot her with all the teleporting. He can tell she doesn’t have a specific pattern of where she teleports and when, which means it’s just a guessing game… Wonderful.

The only good thing about this fight right now was how Haggar has yet to try and attack Lance. Shiro was glad that he didn’t have to worry about Haggar targeting Lance because he was weaker than Shiro, but the fact there were no attacks did make him a bit on edge. He assumed Haggar would at least throw a spell a few times over. Make Lance switch up his position, put him in a bubble, block his weapon, anything, but nothing made him suspicious. It was like she was just waiting so she could catch him off guard… 

And catch him off guard, she did. 

Lance was trying to find where Haggar vanished to when it happened. He was so focused on looking everywhere but behind him because she hasn’t teleported near him yet, that he didn’t notice she was standing right behind him until Shiro called out his name in warning. He twists his body to be on his back just in time to get a spell casted onto him straight in the chest. He flinches from the initial contact and then winces from the slight sting of pain that follows. But after she hits him with the spell, she vanishes again and appears right in front of Shiro.

Shiro panics as he notices Haggar in front of him. He was focused on Lance being hit with a spell that he didn’t know, so he wasn’t ready to get straight back into the fight. But he had to jump back into it before he ended up injured or worse; captured. He’d definitely prefer dying to an injury than being in Haggar’s hands again. 

Haggar and Shiro continue fighting for a few minutes until an explosion is heard not too far off from where they are. Shiro smiles as he realizes Hunk and Keith came over to help them once they were done with their own ship, and is attacking from the outside with their lions. The stealth part of this mission was compromised a while ago, so there wasn’t any use in not using the lions anymore. 

The witch screams in anger and vanishes again. Shiro assumes it’s to make sure the ship isn’t damaged too much, as the lions were a bigger threat to her plans than not having Shiro was. She would love to have her wonderful champion back of course, but her plans for this planet were far more necessary than him. 

Shiro is drawn from his thoughts as Lance lets out a soft groan. There hadn’t been time to check him over earlier, so Shiro could only hope Lance wasn’t too injured. He rushes over to the boy who was still laying on his back. There was a small tint of purple on Lance’s chest from the spell, as well as a few scuffs to show that the spell was actually physical instead of one that can just happen in secrecy.

“Lance, are you alright?” Shiro asks with concern in his voice, crouching down next to him. The man in question nods his head and sighs. However, he makes no move to get up or even ask Shiro for help to get up. Shiro helps Lance sit up against the wall anyway. The younger one groans at the movement but doesn’t complain. He knows that they’ll need to get out of here soon if they don’t want Haggar to finish with their teammates and then come back for them.

They wait there for a moment so Lance can rest for a bit more. But eventually, Shiro does decide they’ve been there long enough. “Alright kiddo, let’s get you going.” Shiro says, putting one of Lance’s arms around his shoulder and then hoisting him off of the ground. Lance grunts as he’s lifted up into a hunched over standing position. They take a few more seconds so Lance can straighten himself out, and then they start heading towards the exit they have planned.

Back at the castle, Shiro makes Lance let him and Coran check out his chest for any other injuries. But they luckily only see the start of a bruise on his skin. And he didn’t have any broken or cracked ribs from the scan that Coran took with his little medical tablet thingy. So Lance was cleared to get back into his normal day with the only set back being some bruise cream he needs to apply before the bruise disappears fully.

This is when Lance decides to ask the question he had from earlier. “Hey, Coran?” He starts. 

Coran looks at him and smiles brightly, “Yes, lad?” 

“Do you guys have movies?” Lance asks. Shiro looks at Lance with a raised eyebrow, thinking about his question. He then realizes he also has no idea if they have movies or not. He knows they can livestream stuff from experience, but he doesn’t know if people actually do scripts and shoot stuff like they do on Earth. There must be millions of movies if all–if not, most–aliens shoot movies like humans do. Especially because of how many different alien races there are. (I feel like it’s been mentioned in an episode that they have movies, and or don’t have movies, but I can’t remember if it has and now I feel stupid.. Oh well.)

“Of course we do! You know, my aunt was in quite a few movies back in her day, maybe I can find them and we can watch them together!” Coran replies. Lance and Shiro both smile as Coran walks off to go find the movies. He had that familiar bounce in his step, but it was more intensified by how excited he was to watch the old movies of his aunt.

Lance and Shiro make their way to the bride of the castle where the other paladins and Allura are waiting for them. Hunk would’ve come to see Lance in the medical bay, but Pidge needed his help with something they found at the Galra base on the planet first. He smiles as he sees the two of them enter the room, rushing over and crushing Lance in a huge hug. 

“Woah- hey Hunk.” Lance says, giggling as Hunk lifts him off the ground. He would pat his friend’s back, but Hunk has his arms over Lance’s tightly. Shiro smiles at the duo and makes his way to where Keith and Allura are talking. The two of them stop talking as they realize Shiro is there. (I feel like these paragraphs are too small…)

Keith glances over at Lance and then back at Shiro, “Is he okay?” Shiro sends a knowing look at his adoptive brother and then nods his head. Keith nods as well, too flustered at the look Shiro gave him before to talk. He didn’t feel like embarrassing himself in front of the princess. And, he knows Shiro will just this moment against him later to embarrass him in front of other people, so he might as well not give him more ammo.

Shiro ruffles Keith’s hair, only laughing at the glare he gets. “You look like a cat, Keith. You don’t scare me.” Shiro says with a smirk. Keith’s glare intensifies when he hears Allura giggle quietly next to him. She tried hiding it as best as she could, but sometimes it just slips out. Shiro was just surprised that Keith didn’t send a glare over at the princess. Back on Earth, Keith would glare at Adam when Adam laughed at Shiro teasing him… Maybe it was different because Allura was a princess?

It was then when the doors open and Coran walks in with a white box in his hands. He must’ve found the movies, Shiro thinks. Coran sets the box down and beckons everyone over. They all form a circle around the box and peak in. The movies didn’t look like anything Shiro had seen on Earth. No CDs, or even the old stuff like VHS tapes. They were little circular balls that were a light metallic sliver-white. The box was full with them. 

They wait as Coran shuffles through the box to find some movies he thought everyone would enjoy, as well as rambling about his aunt and watching these movies for the first time like an old grandpa telling stories to his grandchildren. It was kind of like that anyway, because of how old Coran is compared to most of the people in this room. Granted, he wasn’t that old in alien time. And being locked away for ten thousand years in something that preserved his body as if no time passed at all definitely made it seem like he was older than he was.

Coran picks out three movies he thinks they should watch first. “Vote time!” He says enthusiastically. Pidge, Lance, and Hunk cheer at his words and patiently wait for Coran to explain each movie before they choose. The other three are also listening, but are more subtle about their excitement. Allura has seen most of these movies back before the war even started, but she was all for watching them again. It was good to have something that was from home when they couldn’t go home anymore.

Eventually, a movie about someone being chased by a bunch of people trying to kill them was chosen. Coran had insisted it was a comedy and wasn’t too graphic. His aunt was playing the main bad guy in the movie. 

Lance fell asleep only twenty minutes in, his head on Hunk’s shoulder. Hunk has an arm wrapped around him. Shiro was on Lance’s other side, their legs touching. Pidge was curled up onto the other side of Hunk. and Keith was sitting on Shiro’s left, next to the princess and then Coran on the far left. 

Shiro figured letting Lance sleep was a good thing to do because of what happened earlier on the Galra ship. He was sure Coran wouldn’t mind just replaying the movie later for when Lance isn’t as tired. Plus, he doubts Coran would get tired watching the movie over and over again.

Lance wakes up in his room. He lays there for a few moments and just stares up at the ceiling as he tries to wake up. And that is when he notices his ceiling isn’t white, it’s blue. He doesn’t remember painting his room to be blue. The only place he’s ever slept that has a blue ceiling is… He quickly glances around the room and is shocked to find himself back on Earth, in his family home, back in his bedroom.

The ceiling is blue because child him wanted to feel like he was underwater. Thinking back on it, he wonders how it never scared him as a kid. Drowning is probably one of the worst ways to go. Maybe his child mind just never thought of the dangers of water? Either way, he’s confused about how he’s back on Earth…

Could it have been just a dream? Being a paladin and going to space? Coran and the princess? His lion? That can’t be, Lance thinks. It all felt too real to have been just a dream. And he’s definitely sure going to the garrison was real because he asked his sister to pinch him when he got in because he thought that moment was a dream. But the war sure felt real. The explosions and bruises definitely felt real to him. Can you feel pain in a dream? Most people say you can’t, which is why people pinch themselves to check if they are in a dream or not. But whose to say that isn’t just a myth? 

He wasn’t sure if he wanted it to be a dream or not.

He’s pulled out of his thoughts by the door opening. He freezes as he sees his mother walk in with a basket full of laundry in her hands. He remembers the familiar green basket belonging to one of his younger brothers. His mother, Nancy, used to always check up on him before she did her laundry. She always did it at a certain time. And being the worrier she is, she wanted to make sure he was okay by that time. Sleeping in until 8am was not usual on the weekends despite being free of school. (I’m pretty sure Nancy is her canon name, but idfk.)

“Oh, you’re awake. I was just checking on you, honey.” Nancy says, a warm smile on her face. Lance starts to tear up as he sees his mother’s smile. It has been too long since he’s seen that familiar gaze and warmth. Nancy looks at her son in worry as she sees the tears welling up in his eyes, “Are you alright, mijo?” 

Lance nods his head as Nancy cups his cheek. He hiccups and tries to keep himself from crying. He was never embarrassed to cry in front of his mother, she was one of those people where you always felt safe to be around. She was someone you could have your worst moment with, but you can just be in her arms and everything feels just slightly more okay. 

“Oh, Mijo..” Nancy’s voice just makes Lance break down. He leans closer to his mother and cries into her shoulder. She runs a hand over his back and makes comforting sounds and whispers. Nancy doesn’t seem to care that her laundry routine is being dragged out longer than usual, she just wants to comfort her son. 

“Mama..” Lance’s voice cracks as he hugs her. Nancy shushes him gently and continues to rub his back. She sets down the green basket full of laundry and finally hugs her son fully. He tries to tone down his crying a bit, not wanting to make her shirt too wet from his tears. He really missed her… 

It is nearing the end of the movie when Shiro sees that Lance’s nose starts bleeding. His eyebrows furrow as he gently shakes Lance to try and wake him up. All the shaking does is make Lance lean more into Hunk than he already is, and the tears behind his closed eyes fall down his cheeks. “Lance?” Shiro asks with a worried voice. His word draws the attention of the other paladins.

Coran gets up to go grab something to help soak up the blood while everyone else keeps trying to wake Lance up. But nothing works. Not even Hunk slapping Lance on the cheek could. Blood from Lance’s nose starts to get everywhere because of the movement and nothing to soak it up yet. Shiro takes it upon himself to gently set one of his fingers under Lance’s nose to try and stop the blood from getting everywhere. It only works a bit, as some blood gets past the barrier and continues dripping down Lance’s chin. The blood was getting darker now compared to the normal red it was when it first started.

“I don’t think his blood being that dark is a good thing, right?” Pidge says, unease in their voice. Shiro shakes his head at her words. It definitely was not good. While a darker color wasn’t always a bad thing, this felt different. Especially because the nosebleed was definitely not stopping anytime soon. It was at this time that Coran finally came back with some alien napkins from the kitchen. They weren’t exactly like the napkins on Earth, but they were definitely similar. He hands the napkins to Shiro, who uses them to replace where his finger was and then also clean up as much blood on his finger as he can. Unfortunately, some of the blood has already dried so it sticks to his finger.

All of them look at Lance in worry. They didn’t know why he wasn’t awake yet, and they had no idea how they were going to wake him up. All they could do is research and wait. 

Lance sits outside in the grass with his siblings playing around him. One of his little cousins is sleeping on the ground right next to him. Lance has a smile on his face as he looks around. He was glad that he was able to be with his family again, but… He couldn’t help this nagging feeling in the back of his mind that told him something was wrong. 

He’d never felt this uneasy and happy at the same time. It was ironic how contradicting those two feelings actually felt to him. The thought makes him chuckle slightly. He sets a hand on top of his cousin and sighs softly. His eyes navigate his surroundings again. He found himself being more aware of where he was the longer he was in space fighting in the intergalactic war. Then again, it must’ve been a dream if he is here right now.

There wasn’t a way they defeated Zarkon and all his bad guys, flew home, and reunited with their families to the point they didn’t feel awkward and he just.. Forgot about it. It’d be a different story if he forgot ever leaving Earth. But he doesn’t. He remembers in specific details how his life got turned upside down. 

What if… What if this wasn’t a dream? 

The thought crosses Lance’s mine. He tenses up and looks around again to try and see if anything was off about it. Things felt familiar, and looked the same as when he left.. Maybe that’s what is wrong. Everyone is the same despite how many months have passed. But he’s not. He has more muscle and he still has some visible scars on his arms from Galra fights. 

None of his littles cousins are taller despite being in the age that grow fast. If only one of them was the same height, he’d believe it, but they all are the same. And his pregnant older sister doesn’t look like she’s even showing yet despite being probably eight or nine months along. Hell, she might’ve given birth while he was away… 

Lance stands up and looks around frantically. This must be the witch’s doing. Her spell was actually something. Oh god, is he going to be trapped here forever? With this fake family that never ages? He can’t be. He refuses to be.

With determination flowing through his veins, he starts running around this false dream reality and tries looking for an exit. He rushes through his house and almost runs into other false family members multiple times. He gets more panicky at every incorrect place he goes to. He heads to the room that started this nightmare in the first place. It was the last place he’ll check before he just runs out of the house and goes to the beach instead.

He looks around his room, throwing things around and turning his bed askew. He just needs to find something that is wrong with this place and maybe it can help him escape. He breaks apart special objects he never would on Earth in his real home to see if something was in them or if a door would magically appear out of them. Some part of his brain is telling him to stop breaking the important stuff; because what if this is an actual dream? But the bigger voice in his head keeps telling him to continue searching. 

The other voices are silenced by a familiar and warm one–like his mother–speaks up. My paladin. Lance gasps and a smile shows up on his face. Blue is still able to speak to him while he’s trapped in here! Maybe she can even help him find a way to get out!!

“Blue..” Lance says, relief clear in his tone.

Go to the water, my paladin. Blue is telling him to stop searching and to go to the beach instead. He doesn’t waste any more time and rushes out of his room and then out of the house. He ignores the calls of his false mother and sister. He knows they aren’t real now.

Lance doesn’t stop running until he’s reached the edge of the water on the beach. He’s out of breath and his feet feel like they’re going to fall off, but he doesn’t even care at this moment. He just wants to be able to leave this place and get back to his friends. “What now?” He calls out. His voice is horace from how much running he had to do, his throat hurts. 

Go in. Is Blue trying to tell him to get in the water? Is that how he’s meant to get out? Maybe it’s the water because Blue is the lion of water, and that’s how she’ll be able to get him out? He doesn’t waste another moment and runs into the water. He shudders at the familiar cold that comes from the ocean. But he doesn’t stop. He continues running until he has to swim to get deeper instead. And then he submerges when he goes as far as he can. 

Lance gasps as he wakes up. He looks around in a panic, thrashing against the arms that hold him. He only calms down when he realizes the person in front of him isn’t a Galra soldier or scientist. It’s Shiro. It’s his leader. His hero. “Sh.. Shiro?” Lance questions, panting softly.

A relieved smile appears on Shiro’s face as he sees Lance awake and lucid. “Hey, bud.. How ya feelin’?” Shiro asks. 

The boy in question doesn’t reply for a few moments, looking around the room to see who is there. He’s trying to calm his racing heart before responding so he can talk without stuttering. Eventually, Lance does end up replying in a still somewhat shaky voice, “Like my head was hit with a metal baseball bat..” He hears a few soft chuckles around him from his answer.

Coran suddenly shows up and pushes Shiro slightly to the side so he can get a closer look at Lance. “What happened while you were knocked out, lad?” He asks. 

Lance hesitates to tell him, “It.. It was like a dream, I suppose?” Coran hums in thought at Lance’s answer. He walks away and grabs his tablet, looking at different known spells on there that could have happened.

“I believe I’ve found it.” Coran says as he walks over, “There’s a type of spell used to make another person vulnerable and keep them in a dreamscape forever. It uses their biggest dream, or one that seems the most believable, and then puts them there. The only way to get someone out is by using a counter spell or by the person in the dream to find an exit themselves. Of course, to use the counter spell you’d need to know that the other spell was used first. I’d like to check on Lance again just to make sure the spell is fully gone now.”

Lance nods his head and gets up from the couch. He stumbles a bit because of the bloody nose from earlier and being in the dreamscape itself. Hunk and Shiro both set a hand on either side of Lance to balance him. Lance chuckles, “Thanks guys.” Shiro and Hunk smile and nod their head, standing up as well so they can help Lance to the medical bay. Coran could probably help Lance alone because of his Altean strength, but both Shiro and Hunk wanted to join them there anyway.

Coran checked him out and even did a few scans to be sure, but said Lance was fully clear of any more magic that wasn’t because he was a paladin. Lance had to go thank Blue of course, who just was happy that her paladin wasn’t going to be stuck in a dreamscape until he eventually dies from his actual body deteriorating. And Hunk bakes Lance a fresh batch of cookies that are even blue! Hunk did have a hard time convincing everyone that they weren’t the same blue ones from last time though.

Chapter Text

No POV:

Shiro wakes up with a groan, looking around the room slowly. He gasps and sits up fully as he realizes just where he is. A Galra cell. He tries remembering what happened before this to have this outcome.

They were on a planet that was infested with Galra at pretty much every turn, as the planet was known for rebellion. Himself and Lance were spotted by some Galra guards and then overwhelmed quickly because of how many Galras were everywhere. Shiro looks around the room, hoping to see Lance somewhere in the cell with him. He spots Lance still knocked out and laying on the floor closer to the back wall instead of the door like he was.

The black paladin hurries over to Lance and tries to wake him up as he searches his body for any obvious wounds. Shiro knew that Lance likely would have a concussion from a pretty hard hit with the back of a Galra blaster, but what if there were more wounds he didn’t see happen?

After a bit more hassling from the black paladin, Lance finally wakes up. He’s sluggish as he looks around the room until he lands his eyes on Shiro. His eyebrows furrow more in concentration as he wills himself to start thinking despite the concussion that Shiro knew he had from his eyes. “Shiro..?” Lance asks quietly.

“Hey, buddy.” Shiro says in response, gently petting Lance’s hair. He’s glad to see that Lance has a positive reaction to the head petting. Shiro smiles down at Lance, “How’re you feeling?”

Lance hums as he thinks about it for a few moments. He then replies with, “Kinda shitty..” Shiro frowns and makes a soft noise of sympathy. He knows just how shitty concussions can make you feel, even if it’s mild. Lance luckily does look like he just has a mild concussion, which should be easier to take care of. Not much he would be able to do though because he didn’t have any supplies in here, and he doubts the Galra will come to help unless the wound turns lethal. And that is speaking from experience.

“Does anything other than your head hurt?” Shiro asks. He doesn’t see any noticeable wounds on the outside besides a few scruffs and cuts on his undersuit, but he doesn’t have a scanner to see if anything was wounded on the inside or broken just enough to not show.

The blue paladin hums and replies, “Ribs..” Shiro gently presses down and around Lance’s ribs, sighing at the feeling of definitely broken ribs. He’s going to have to keep an eye on that until they can get some sort of pod, because broken ribs can impale Lance in other spots and they wouldn’t know. Suddenly, Lance speaks up again, “Are you hurt..?”

Shiro smiles at the worry in Lance’s voice. He always found it admirable how Lance cared for all of his teammates, even when he was the one actually injured. “Nothing more than a few scrapes and bruises.” Shiro says. Lance nods his head, happy with his leader’s answer.

The two of them sit in silence after that. Shiro was trying to come up with a plan that wouldn’t hurt Lance during it. Well, hurt him more. Lance went back to sleep pretty quickly after their small conversation. Shiro wasn’t surprised. He knows he’ll have to keep waking Lance up every hour though, just to check that the concussion wasn’t getting worse.

The door to the cell doesn’t open in days. And Shiro knows this because he hasn’t slept since he woke up here. He keeps himself alert by continuously checking over Lance and making sure nothing has changed. Lance seems alert despite the concussion he obviously has, but Shiro knows Lance is still not fond of anything more than a whisper. Shiro is honestly glad there isn’t much light in the cells for once. He knows it would be hell for Lance if this cell was as bright as the castle.

But Shiro couldn’t stay awake forever. He knows he can’t stay awake the entire time they are held here, but he’s afraid of what could happen while he’s asleep. He wasn’t a deep sleeper, but that doesn’t mean silent things could happen. Like Lance getting worse overnight, or his breathing stopping because one of his ribs impale his lungs while Shiro wasn’t checking.

It was on the fourth day that Shiro finally succumbed to his sleep deprived body. He has his human hand resting on Lance’s chest, feeling his breathing and heart just in case something changes. He doesn’t lay down, opting to just sleep while hunched over while sitting up. He hadn’t planned on actually falling asleep. He was just going to rest his eyes for a few moments. But his body had other plans for him. So he falls asleep in that position.

Lance stirs in his sleep as he hears muttering next to him. It was as loud as normal talking to him. He looks over at Shiro, expecting a smile greeting him and a few questions before he could go back to sleep, but is surprised to see Shiro hunched over with his eyes closed. Lance raises an eyebrow, “Shiro?” When he doesn’t get an answer, Lance starts to slowly sit up. He knows that he probably shouldn’t be sitting up without any help, but he has a feeling something is wrong with his leader, and he wasn’t one to just ignore stuff like that. Especially not after everything Shiro has done for him.

The wounded boy shakes Shiro’s shoulder, “Shiro, are you al-” His words are cut off by Shiro grabbing Lance’s arm with his prosthetic suddenly. Lance looks down at his arm in confusion that quickly turns to pain as Shiro turns on his Galran arm and starts burning Lance's skin. “Shiro, what’re you doing?!” Lance yells, squirming to try and break free from Shiro’s tight hold onto his arm. Tears sting Lance’s eyes as the squirming hurts his ribs and just makes the burning worse. He continues to shout Shiro’s name to try and get him to stop, but then it just turns into screaming and sobbing as the pain gets too much for him to handle. He begs Shiro to stop.

Shiro’s eyes snap open and he quickly looks over at Lance’s crying face, letting go of his arm and freezing as he realizes what he’s done. He just hurt Lance thinking he was a Galra in his nightmare. Shiro’s heart breaks as he sees Lance cradling his arm close to his body and sobbing his eyes out, “Lance, I’m so so sorry, please forgive me-”

The cell door opens, showing two Galran guards with their weapons raised. One of them comes towards the duo and throws Shiro to the other side of the cell to keep him away from Lance, then the Galra walks over to Lance and looks at the fresh wound. They grumble and makes Lance stand up, dragging him towards the door and into the hall. Shiro wishes he could follow them, convince Lance that he didn’t mean to and that he was asleep, or maybe help Lance not get too overwhelmed from having to walk with broken ribs and a concussion, especially with the hallway lights.

But Shiro is left alone in the cell. He doesn’t know if Lance is getting treatment or just being thrown to a different cell so they can’t hurt each other. God, Shiro wishes it was the first one and they let Lance come back to this cell despite what just happened.

There is no update on Lance’s state for an hour. But once it reaches to just an hour and seven minutes, the cell door opens again and a guard shoves Lance inside harshly. Shiro, who had made his way to the door in the hour he was waiting in case he could catch the guards talking, quickly catches Lance before he falls face first into the harsh cell floor. Lance groans in pain as his ribs are jossled. Shiro shushes him softly, “I know, I’m sorry…”

“It’s… It’s okay…” Lance replies. Shiro can tell Lance was telling him it was okay from Shiro accidentally hurting his ribs when he caught him, and from earlier during Shiro’s nightmare.

Shiro helps Lance over to the other side of the cell where it was less noisy, and then lowers him gently to the ground without hurting him more. Lance sighs in relief as he back leans against Shiro’s chest. It felt easier to breathe now that he was sitting up, which Shiro noticed. He was starting to regret not helping Lance sit up earlier, despite his fears about his ribs. His thought helps Shiro remember to check on Lance’s ribs and make sure none of them moved too close to any of his organs. He gently feels around Lance’s sides and chest, smiling when he’s done and deems Lance still good.

Lance yawns, wincing at how much pain it brings him to suck in a bunch of air. Shiro chuckles softly at the yawn, “You should go back to sleep, buddy.” Lance nods his head in agreement. He didn’t really care for staying awake at this moment, as it just brought more pain, so he closes his eyes and falls asleep. Shiro runs his hand through Lance’s hair.

The black paladin doesn’t fall asleep again. He can’t risk what happened earlier when he fell asleep happening again. He stays deep in thought until the cell door is thrown open again. But this time, it isn’t a Galra who opens the door. It’s Hunk. A relieved smile appears on Shiro’s face as he realizes he and Lance are being rescued.

Hunk looks at the two of them in worry, “We gotta go, like right now.” Shiro nods his head, picking Lance up gently in a bridal hold. He follows Hunk outside of the cell and towards the yellow lion. Shiro hears explosions and alarms and prays that they don’t wake Lance up. But it seems luck is not on his side as he hears Lance let out a soft groan. He must be feeling the pain of being held, and Shiro is sure the explosions and blaring alarms don’t help.

Lance’s face scrunches up from the pain of everything happening, but he doesn’t ask anything. He seems to already realize what is happening because of all the noises and the obvious feeling of being carried by someone who is running. Shiro is kind of glad he doesn’t have to answer anything right now.

The three of them luckily don’t run into any sentries or Galras on the way to the yellow lion, and it doesn’t take longer than ten minutes to arrive. Hunk lets Shiro and Lance get into the lion first so he can make sure no one is behind them, and then he enters it after he’s sure no one else is there. Shiro sits on the floor of the cockpit with Lance sitting in his lap. He figures this position would have the least amount of movement or tumbling around. They would be fine standing if they were just exiting a normal mission, but they were about to head into a probably huge fight between Keith, Pidge, and the Galrans, so it was likely not going to be a smooth ride no matter what they do. Might as well make it as comfortable as they can.

Hunk flies them as smoothly as he can back to the Castle of Lions. He dodges cruisers and Keith and Pidge at the same time. Shiro will have to compliment his flying later, and thank him at the same time. Lance would probably be cheering Hunk on if he wasn’t passed out again in Shiro’s arms. Shiro thought it was for the best anyway.

Once Hunk lands the lion in the castle, Shiro stands up and walks towards the med bay. He helps Lance change out of his under armour and into a cryo suit instead, then places him inside one of the pods. Coran had taught all of them the minimum on how to use a pod correctly so they could put people in them when Coran or Lance was busy and or the people who needed to be put in. Lance only knew more than the rest of them because he had asked Coran to teach him about it. It was better for everyone to have more than one person know how to work their way around the medical things too.

Shiro is the one who catches Lance once he’s ready and all healed from the pod. He wraps Lance’s body in a blanket as he catches him, smiling as he sees Lance immediately snuggle into the warmth Shiro’s body and the blanket give. Lance yawns and looks up at Shiro.

The leader notices the gaze and chuckles, “Hey, bud.” Lance just hums in response and then snuggles closer into Shiro’s chest. Shiro doesn’t mind. After all, Lance did just come out of the pod, and he knows how cold you feel after even just an hour in them. And Lance was in them for about seven hours.

“It’s not your fault, you know?” Lance suddenly says. Shiro looks down at lance in confusion and shock, wondering what he meant by that. Lance looks up at his leader, “The burn.” Shiro sighs as he now realizes what Lance means once he explained more.

“I know.” Shiro replies.

Lance smiles, “Good.”