Chapter Text
Hunk forced his way through the deep snow, carving a path behind him for the rest of the team. Beside him, Allura was working just as hard to clear a space, but she wasn’t just pushing through the snow, she was also pushing hard to keep her shapeshifting active. She’d made herself wider this time, instead of taller, so that she could leave a bigger path through the snowdrifts, but even with her extra width, she was clearly getting tired, too.
Everything hurt. His muscles were sore, his whole body was aching from the cold, and even inside his helmet, the air was so cold it stung when he breathed. Their armor had helped for a while, but the snow was too thick and the wind too cold, and one by one their armor’s heating systems had given out.
He could hear Pidge’s teeth chattering behind them, but she was far from his only worry. Lance and Keith were too skinny, too, and they had a long way to go before they could get back to the lions.
The wind picked up again and he gritted his teeth, turning his head to look behind him. Pidge and Keith looked miserable, but were keeping up well. Lance was lagging behind.
“Stay close to me!” Hunk shouted at him, “I can try to block the wind.”
Lance nodded, hurrying to catch up, but then seemed to lose his balance, reeling into the side of the trench he was walking through. Keith reached out and caught him. “He’s breathing kind of funny!” he shouted over the wind, “I think he’s starting to get hypothermia!”
Hunk and Allura looked at each other and then took a step back, pulling into a huddle around Keith and Lance. Pidge was already by Lance’s side, supporting him.
“What do you want to do, Keith?” Hunk asked, letting their new leader take charge.
“We could try going back,” Allura said, charging in instead, “But I’m not sure we’d make it any faster, and this lull in the storm could be over at any moment, with those clouds. We might have to fight just as hard to get through the snow in the other direction. At least if we keep going, we know we’ll be welcome at the end. The lions will be ready for us, and we don’t want to abuse the hospitality of our new allies too quickly.”
Keith looked tired, but Hunk couldn’t tell if it was normal tired or hypothermic tired. He shifted to block the wind anyway, hating the way it tore through the damp parts of his underarmor, hating the way it almost pushed him over into his friends, and hating the way both made him tense up, tiring his muscles out even further.
“We keep going,” Keith said, “We don’t really have a choice. We’re closer to the lions anyway.”
Hunk nodded, bracing himself for another fight against the weather. “Ok. Just keep close to me and Allura. It’s better if we can keep you out of the wind.”
When they started again, Hunk could practically feel the others behind him, they were so close. Pidge’s teeth were still chattering, and while Lance’s footsteps were steady with Keith’s arm supporting him, they also sounded a little clumsy, scraping periodically into the snow. He kept whispering soft sorries any time he stepped on Keith’s foot, and Keith kept reassuring him that it was alright, but it wasn’t. They had to get him out of the cold.
Suddenly, Pidge giggled behind him.
“What?” Keith snapped.
“Sorry, I just f-figured out what we’re like. We’re like the F-Fellowship trying t-to get over C-C-Charadhras. The three of us are the h-hobbits.”
Hunk snorted. “So I guess I’m Boromir? I’d rather not get shot, if it’s all the same.”
“Allura c-can be Boromir and you c-can be Aragorn.”
“Nah, she’s the one who’s real royalty.”
“Who are these hobbits you speak of?” Allura asked.
Pidge giggled again. “We’ll t-tell you when we g-get back to the l-lions.”
Hunk just hoped that was true. He and Allura were shivering now, too, in spite of the hard work of pushing through the snow, and Pidge was clearly getting worse. Keith seemed to be in better shape than Pidge or Lance, but the more weight Lance leaned on him, the more he let out little grunts of effort as he kept them moving.
It felt like an eternity before they made it back to the lions. The storm started again when they were in view of the lions, blotting them out and making it hard to see more than a few feet in front of them. The other three paladins huddled close behind him and Allura, so they would get lost. Keith was busy holding Lance up, but Pidge grabbed ahold of Lance's other arm with her left hand and slid the right into Allura's hip pocket, keeping them connected just in case.
The lions were a few dozen yards away and just visible through the snow when Allura’s shapeshifting gave out, and Hunk had to shove through by himself, bashing his body up against the mounting wall of snow to clear it for the rest of the team even though every push forward hurt more than before.
Blue’s mouth opened in front of them before any of them could muster the extra breath to call out to their lions. “She wants all of us to get in,” Allura said behind him, “Hurry! Lance needs the heaters!”
Hunk nodded, Keith grunted, and if Pidge said yes, Hunk didn’t catch it. But that didn’t matter. They were so close.
As he climbed the ramp into the lion, Hunk realized his legs were shaking from all the exertion. Keith was carrying Lance completely, and Pidge was clearly struggling to stay on her feet, but Allura reached over to help, leaning into Hunk and letting him lean back. They made it into Blue's cockpit together, heaving a sigh of relief as they got out of the wind.
“Put Lance in the seat,” Allura said, “She says she can focus the heat on his core better that way.”
Keith shook his head, “We’ve gotta get his armor off, first. At least the wet parts. Is there a blanket anywhere?”
“She says there’s one in a drawer in the back, I’ll go get it.”
Hunk stepped up to help Keith with Lance. “Come on, buddy,” he said, “Stay with us.” Lance’s eyes were flickering open and shut, and his face was cold once they got his helmet off and Hunk could feel his forehead.
“Why are you taking my clothes off?” Lance asked, “Can Pidge see? Don’t let Pidge see! Why can’t I wear my armor?”
“It’s too wet,” Keith explained, “We have to get you warmed up, and it’ll keep you cold.
“Oh,” Lance said, flopping over on Keith as soon as the red paladin had gotten his armor off him. “You’re warm.”
“Not as warm as your chair’s gonna be,” Keith said back, clearly uncomfortable. Hunk tried not to think about how much the outside of their paladin armor was not warm.
Hunk reached over to help steady Lance, and he flopped over toward him, instead. “You’re warm, too.”
“You’re gonna be so warm when Blue’s done with you,” he said reassuringly, “She still loves you, you know.”
"'Course she loves me," he said happily, pushing away from Hunk to flop over part of the pilot's chair. "We love each other."
Allura appeared with the blanket just as they were ready to strip Lance out of the underlayer of his armor. He blushed and fought their hands off until she and Pidge both agreed to turn their backs, but then he let Hunk and Keith help him out of his clothes and wrap him in the blanket.
As soon as Lance was settled into the seat that used to be his, the lion purred so fiercely that the rest of them felt it too, not just her own paladins. It almost made up for the fact that once he was curled up in the seat, he stopped bothering to keep his eyes open.
Sinking onto the floor of the Blue Lion felt as good as anything Hunk could remember. It was a relief to be off his feet and an even bigger relief not to be outside, trying to shield his friends from the weather. The storm was too heavy to fly through, so he didn't have to worry about trying to get the others to their lions. All he had to worry about was Lance.
Keith came over and sat next to Hunk, putting a hand on his shoulder. “You did a good job out there. We’d never have made it without you.”
Hunk ducked his head down, looking away. “You guys needed it.”
“Yeah, but you still did it. You should be proud of that.”
Maybe Keith was right, but even if he was, Hunk didn’t know how to say so. “Thanks, Keith,” he answered, instead.
Hunk could tell Keith was still on edge from Lance’s collapse. He looked around the cockpit, taking all of them in, then said “Pidge, come over here. You’re shivering too hard, too. You need extra body heat.”
Hunk wasn’t sure which was more surprising, the fact that Keith had said it, or the fact that Pidge actually followed directions, coming to sit between him and Keith and snuggle with them both. Keith stripped out of the top parts of his armor, leaving the black bodysuit, and the rest of them followed his lead, before snuggling closer together again. They were wet and freezing, and Pidge's shivering was concerning, but at least without the shells in the way, they could start to share body heat.
Allura sat across from them, leaning up against the side of the pilot’s chair where she could keep an eye on Lance. For a while, they just sat, periodically asking Lance to open his eyes, just to prove he still could.
Finally, Lance was stable enough to tell them off without sounding confused, and they could let him sleep. He was out of immediate danger, and if they could wait out the storm, they could get him real medical help at the Castle.
“So,” Allura said, after they’d been sitting in silence for a while, “While we’re stuck here, tell me about those hobbits you mentioned.”
Hunk opened his mouth to explain, but before he could get a word out, the most surprising thing of all happened.
“It all started,” Keith said, “When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday …”