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The planet was interesting to say the least. It wasn’t humanoid enough to mistake it for earth. But it also wasn’t foreign enough to mistake it for another alien planet. It was a strange disorientating mix. Though Lance could feel the extra gravity weighing on him, his arm was buzzing with a strange numbness too that felt heavier than the rest of his body. The lion on his arm almost feeling like it was real and digging into his shoulder and not just alien ink.
On the surface of the planet it was mostly rocks, dust was kicking up everywhere and Lance was pretty glad that they were keeping their helmets on for this mission. Who know what kind of dirt would get into his empty piercing is he took off his helmet in these conditions. Lance frown as his arm throbbed. Though, he supposed he had worst problems than that. His arm wasn’t moving easily. The shoulder not at all. Wasn’t that his shooting arm? Fuck. A hand on his shoulder jolted him out of his thoughts.
“Are you alright Lance?” Allura was there, a soft smile only reserved for him was there on her slightly pink lips. Lance smiled back reassuringly.
“I’m alright gorgeous. Though, do you know what’s in alien tattoos, it’s just ink, right?” Allura paused to think, a hand slipping down comfortably to the others waist as they walked together, almost looking like brother and sister with their familiar actions and similar skin tones.
“I believe so, though the different colors might come from flecks of sea rock material since your tattoos are in fact blue. Why do you ask?” Lance held back a grimace. Rocks often held metal, didn’t they? His arm was probably being dragged down by the gravity of the planet. That, was something to work around. How was he going to shoot if he had too? Well, thank god he was ambidextrous. He’d have one arm to work with at least.
“Ah, nothing Allura, just curious after someone asked me about it.” Allura took the excuse with an easy nod as Lance followed the other, still star stuck, paladins to the diplomat’s chambers. Smiling at Lance with a now smug smile. Those other paladins had nothing on Allura, she loved them of course, they were her paladins. But god were they dense. At least Lance was getting a little attention now. Allura frowned.
But, how did anyone see the tattoo while Lance was in armor?
Allura shrugged it off. It was probably one of the paladins that saw Lance before he suited up. Lance probably avoiding saying who it was because he knew she was still upset at the rest of them for ignoring their team mates. Allura brushed off the thought and swept back into the room. Lance out of his armor was the first thing she saw before she looked around. Feeling relieved that it seemed it was a safe place as everyone was coming out of their battle suits.
The tan Cuban boy wince as his arm failed to move to pull out the chair in the meeting. The buzzing was much worse than when he’d been in the suit before. It was like a physical ache that was trying to claw him down into the ground. But Lance ignored it easily, shuffling into the chair awkwardly and cradling his arm discreetly in his lap. Trying to take the pressure off of it, which worked to help Lance a little bit as he silently cursed himself.
Of course, he’d thought of the piercings being metal, but he hadn’t thought of the metal concentrate in the big ass tattoo of his main shooting arm. Luckily, it was going to be a short visit. Just a peaceful meeting and negotiation. And the leader had assured them all that the chambers were a clean safe place to take off their armor. So, Lance didn’t think he had to worry about getting sick or infected with something. -He’d already dealt with a space illness, never a-fucking-gain please-The lean boy relaxed against his chair as Allura came up and sat beside him with a hand on his shoulder in a quietly affectionate gesture that had Lance smiling almost unnoticeably like an idiot. Leaning slightly into her touch as the meeting went on. He could feel the rest of them staring at him, but, he couldn’t quite bring himself to care. She was the one that was always there for him, and if she was still willingly to smother him with attention than that was fine by Lance. The others were still, friends in a way, it wasn’t like training with them had stopped, or all conversations. They just didn’t pay attention when it mattered… or maybe Lance just had the shittiest timing to try and start conversations in the world.
Either way, honestly, Lance had spent months trying to get their attention. And it hadn’t worked. If they wanted to actually have a conversation and a relationship with him. They were going to have to put in the work to make it not one sided. So, they’d have to come to him this time.
That was fair, right?
His arm groaned quietly as Allura’s grip adjusted lower. His shoulder was almost slinking out of its joint in near dislocation. God, how strong was the fucking gravity here? Lance felt like something was compressing his chest. But he still smiled, sending a small glance at the clock. There would only be about ten more minutes before Lance could suit up and they’d all head to the castle to call it a day. Until the meetings tomorrow which Allura would be handling alone. The paladins were honestly just for show to the public. Lance knew how the game went. Though, he had been going with Allura these past few meetings, and gotten quite well versed in the diplomatic and intricate ploys of politics. Knowing how to play the people charmer helped his learning experience too. He thought he’d skip this one.
As much as he whined playfully, he didn’t really like to complain unless it was for dramatic and comedy purposes. Besides, his shoulder would probably just need a break in good gravity and some rest to recover. It already felt better when he took the weight off of it by leaning it against the table.
Damn, he could only imagine how Shiro was feeling right now. His whole fucking right arm was metal. Wasn’t it? Shiro didn’t really seemed that bothered by it. Galran, druid magic bullshit right there. What the fuck. True, he kind of did this to himself though. He wanted the big ass ocean and lion themed tattoo to be blue to represent his beautiful girl, and now he was going to pay the god damn price.
Eh, it was only for a mission. One planet. Then it would be onto the next.
A meeting that was now finally over and god no Lance forgot about getting up and staying up with his arm trying to pry itself out of his body. God fucking damn it. Lance gritted his teeth as he forced his burningly numb arm to move and put on his helmet for him. Holding his breath and stumbling his way to the castle which gave him almost immediate relief. His arm jolting back into his socket and almost feeling as light as air. The pain and ache was wading away slowly. Lance wanted to laugh in relief. Allura nudged him.
“You alright? You’re distracted on me.” Lance grinned.
“You mean, I’m /spacing out/ on you gorgeous.” Allura paused, before sneering in disgust as Coran smothered a laugh down the hall.
“I’m disgusted that I actually set you up for that one. Coran. I need a healing pod, immediately. Lance infected me with stupid.” Coran wondered down the hall, ignoring the other paladins filing into the room.
“Ah princess Allura, don’t worry. Me and my boy can teach you all you need to know in the ways of bad puns and dad jokes. I’m quite sure of that.” Lance smothered a smile.
“Hello Quite Certain of That, I’m Lance.” Coran turned to him with a similar sneer of disgust to match Allura’s previous expression.
“Never mind. Throw him in the healing pod. Anyone with that bad of a sense of human has something wrong. Allura hold him down and I’ll shove him in the pod.” The three looked at each other as Allura grabbed Lance’s shoulders slowly, before the three of them burst into laughter. Lance almost having tears running down his face from how hard he was laughing. Cause the paladins who had trickled in to stare.
“Coran my man, I already hold the record for most healing pod visits. Do I get a prize for that by the way?”
“You’ll get a prize when you win a battle and don’t have to use the healing pod.” Lance whistled.
“Damn, those are some high requirements you have.” The two laughed as Allura looked back to the paladins who were all staring longingly and curiously before catching her gaze. She smirked and clung to Lance a little tighter. Him unconsciously leaning into her embrace as she gave a smug look.
Coran and Allura have played favorites, and it was damn obvious who was the favorite one of the batch. The other paladins would just have to deal. Allura turned back her full attention to Lance and Coran and rejoined the conversations as the others lingered silently. As if waiting for a chance to speak with the blue paladin, a chance that from the looks Allura and even Coran were sometimes shooting them, would not be happening in the near future.
“Lance, you either need the healing pod all the time. Or refuse it when you desperately need it.” Lance looked indignant.
“You shush your pretty face princess! It was a small infection for a minor injury. I was lightly stabbed. And my belly piercing was new! Who knew when we’d get to the next planet that could do that kind of piercing would be! I didn’t want it to get healed over!” Allura laughed.
“Lance, you had an over 100-degree fever, which even you conceded to tell us was not normal for humans. You were sweating bullets and constantly tired and I barely even touched your wound before you almost shrieked and collapsed onto yourself. How is that even considered minor in your mind?”
“I mean, I didn’t die. That counts.” Shiro froze. Lance had an infection? When was that? And he didn’t ask them for help? It was almost terrifying. They were so caught up in their own lives and projects they hadn’t noticed their teammate suffering a severe injury. And obviously a long time ago with how lightly they were talking about it. It wasn’t a fresh topic. Which it really wasn’t. (It seemed like every spa night they had Allura would give him shit for that as he did her face mask. In between seconds of her scolding Coran for eating all their cucumbers and listening intently to Lance’s ramblings about his family of weird things he’d seen on the latest planet. Or his slightly odd, slightly funny obsession with mermaids.)
Shiro was flabbergasted and almost heart broken. He’d missed seeing this paladin grow up so much. What else had he missed with the Cuban boy. Did he miss any developments with the others? Was everyone else feeling as guilty as he felt? Keith was never an easy person to read, but it was easy to tell when he was having an inner battle with himself and it was clear as day to Shiro what today’s battle was.
Torturing himself for not noticing his interest being hurt, not noticing the little changes and the new quirks. Wanting to both murder anyone that had hurt Lance and wanting to clear the air. And the battle of how he could even approach the topic, much less apologize for not noticing the blue paladin for so long.
God, they all loved him so much. Yet they hadn’t even seen the changes or noticed them. How had they been so caught up that they didn’t even notice their friend anymore?
What could they do to fix this?
---
It was true, the mission only lasted a few days, and after Allura pried the knowledge of Lance’s tattoo literally dragging him down she let him hang around and do chores with Coran for the remainder of their time on the planet. But something still wasn’t feeling right with Lance. It still felt hard to breath, and sometimes it hurt to even open his eyes in the morning. As if they dark was almost too bright for him to handle. The dizziness was worse though. It felt like he was constantly on a tilt-a-whirl. And Lance was only thankful that he wasn’t nauseous. Though he had a feeling that people were starting to catch on to him feeling under the weather.
People kept bugging him. First it was Keith. Doing random shit, and almost acting like they used to. Small bickering. Challenges. But Lance didn’t know how to react anymore. His instincts and personality were intact, so bickering was easy. But he was tiring out easily after the last mission for some reason, by the end of their argument Lance really wasn’t up to sparring. So, Lance just brushed away with a smile. He knew Keith was looking at him weirdly, but Lance was honestly too tired to care.
Hunk invited him to hang out in the kitchen and bake and Lance was happy to do so, until the loud beeping of kitchen timers and the heat started to make Lance feel like he was on the worlds worse fair ride and he wandered away with a reassuringly smile. Ending up in a quiet dark room with Pidge, which was like heaven. Low maintenance social interaction, a dark room, and comfy seat. It was damn nice and probably his favorite interaction with Pidge at the moment as they just enjoyed the silent moment. Pidge showing her attention with simple gestures, like leaning on Lance or small nudges every now at then.
Next interaction, was not so pleasant as Lance finally faced it. His fears about getting infected with something through the holes in his face had come true as he woke up with a throbbing headache, pale skin, and a flush that almost made him look as red as the lion that mullet man piloted.
In other words, he was sick as hell. And the first person to see him bundled up on his bed, half delirious with a fever? Not Allura or Coran or even anyone else. Just Takashi fucking Shirogane. Basically, the last person Lance would want to show weakness too. Shiro was almost Lance’s hero, despite the long rough patch of Shiro basically not noticing a thing about him except in training or battles. Who the hell wants their hero to see them sweating bullets and almost crying from how bad of a migraine they had?
No fucking one. That’s who.
Honestly, the only thing that was keeping him grounded from a freak out was playing with his tongue piercing. A small habit he’d developed over the months of having it. And maybe the fact that Lance was only really half aware of what the hell was going on as his door slid open with an ear grinding click. Letting more light that Lance really wanted or liked into the room as Shiro walked in with quiet, but still too fucking loud, footsteps.
“Lance? Are you awake yet? You weren’t at breakfast, so I came to check on you.” Huh, it was past breakfast. It felt like the middle of the night. But that still didn’t explain why Shiro was here. No one ever batted an eye when he missed breakfast. Usually he just spent breakfast with Blue because of the fact he was never really hungry in the mornings.
“Lance?” He was freezing and hot at the same time, but nothing compared to the feeling of Shiro’s human hand on his forehead. It was warm and cold all at the same time. Though Lance had no doubt his forehead was probably sweaty and gross and he felt a little bad that Shiro touched him when he felt disgusting and was probably contagious, but nice too. Because he was feeling a little selfish and god damn it Shiro’s large hand felt really fucking nice on his skin.
“God, you’re burning up. Shit. Uh. Fuck. Can’t leave him like this, but, shit. It’s alright Lance, I got you.” Honestly, to Lance. It sounded more like freaking out that handling it. But that was just Lance. And he wasn’t about to complain as Shiro tucked him in more firmly with another blanket switch to place his cool metal hand on Lance’s forehead as he murmured into the com just barely audibly.
“Yeah, he’s got a fever and I think a headache. Do you have aspirin or Tylenol? No. No! It’s a human medication to help people with pain and fevers. No, I don’t know if anything else is wrong. He’s breathing a little funny, fevers can do that to some people on earth. Thanks Coran. Yeah, I’ll keep an eye on him.” And Shiro went quiet, gently running his fingers through the gorgeously maintained brown hair that had the colors of a tropical sea intertwined in it.
“I’m sorry Lance. I’ll be a better leader, I’ll pay more attention, and I swear to god you won’t ever feel like you’re being ignored by me or us ever again. I promise that to you right now, and I’ll keep telling you that every day if I have to. Just. Please get better and let us get that chance to make it up to you.” Lance’s lips quirked up in a small smile despite him feeling like shit.
It almost felt like, things were going to be alright.
Maybe, it was time to put the game to rest.
He had a new family now after all.
They loved him a lot too.